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LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

Theological   Seminary 

PRINCETON,    N.J. 

BX  9225  .C4  H26  1851  v. 4 
Hanna,  William,  1808-1882 
Memoirs  of  the  life  and 
writings  of  Thomas 


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NEW-YORK.    HARPER  ScBRCTHERS 


MEMOIRS 


OF 


THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 


OF 


THOMAS  CHALMERS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


BY  HIS   SON-IN-LA.W, 

THE  REY.  WILLIAM  llANNA,  LL.D. 


IN   FOUR   VOLUMES. 

VOL.    lY. 


NEW    YORK: 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 
329    AND    3  31    PEARL    STREET, 

FRANKLIN     SQUARE. 

18  5  2. 


PREFACE. 


In  the  preceding  volumes  it  was  a  studied  effort  of 
the  Editor  .to  confine  himself  to  the  proper  task  of  the 
biographer,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the  critic  or 
the  historian.  In  the  present  volume  he  has  been 
obliged  to  enter  upon  a  general  narrative  of  the  Dis- 
ruption ;  but,  however  grateful  might  have  been  the 
office  of  rendering  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Drs. 
Macfarlane,  Welsh,  and  Broavn,  and  Messrs.  Speirs, 
Hamilton,  J.  S.  Stewart,  and  Crichton,  he  has  de- 
clined the  task  of  delineating  the  character,  or  record- 
ing the  services  of  the  many  eminent  individuals  who, 
at  that  period,  were  Dr.  Chalmers's  associates  and 
coadjutors. 

In  closing  his  labors  he  has  to  offer  his  most  grate- 
ful acknowledgments  to  Dr.  Irving,  Professor  Dun- 
can, Dr.  "Watson,  Mr.  Bruce,  Principal  Cunningham, 
and  all  those  friends  who,  by  supplying  materials  or 
advice,  have  aided  in  a  work  which  however  imper- 
fectly executed,  may,  it  is  hoped,  confer  some  benefit 
on  the  Church  and  on  the  world. 

May,  1852. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOB 

Preface v 

CHAPTER  I. 

Literary  Distinctions  conferred  upon  Dr.  Chalmers — Elected  a 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  a  Corresponding 
Member  of  the  Royal  Institute  of  France — The  Degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Laws  bestowed  by  the  University  of  Oxford — Memorial  to 
Government  regarding  the  Endowment  of  the  Theological  Chair 
in  Edinburgh — Commencement  of  the  publication  of  a  Uniform 
Edition  of  his  Works — The  Moderatorship  Controversy 13 

CHAPTER  n. 

Sir  George  Clerk  and  Sir  James  Graham  defend  the  Exclusive 
Spiritual  Jurisdiction  of  the  Church  of  Scotland — Support  given 
to  the  Church  Extension  Scheme  by  the  Conservatives — Sir 
Robert  Peel's  Testimony  in  its  Favor — Its  Treatment  by  the 
Whig  Ministry — First  Report  of  the  Royal  Commissioners — 
Postponement  of  any  Government  Action — Second  and  Third 
Reports — Ministerial  Measure  Proposed  and  Withdrawn — 
General  Politics  of  this  Period — Dr.  Chalmers's  Letter  to 
Mr.  Campbell  of  Monzie — His  own  Defense  of  his  Conduct — 
The  King's  Death — First  Levee  of  Queen  Victoria — The  Gen- 
eral Election — Correspondence  with  Sir  Robert  Peel — Home 
Operations  on  Behalf  of  Church  Extension — Their  Extraordi- 
nary Success 28 

CHAPTER  m. 

Delivery  of  a  Course  of  Lectures  in  London  in  Defense  of  Religious 
Establishments 44 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PAGE 

Visit  to  Paris — Tour  through  some  of  the  Inland  Provinces  of 
France 57 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Seventh  Decade  of  Life — Last  Eflbrts  on  Behalf  of  Church 
Extension — Plan  of  Mr.  William  Campbell — The  Great  North- 
ern Tour — The  Grampians — Loch  Eiricht — Inverness — Tarbet 
House — Skibo  Castle — Teaninich — Cromarty — Fall  of  Foyers 
—Cathedral  of  Elgin— Banff— The  Buller  of  Buchan— Haddo 
House — Invercanld — Results  of  Church  Extension 75 

CHAPTER  VI. 

First  Stage  in  the  Non-Intrusion  Controversy — Settlement  at 
Auchterarder — Action  before  the  Court  of  Session — Decision 
of  the  Judges — Appeal  to  the  House  of  Lord.s — Resolution  of 
the  General  Assembly.  1838 — Speeches  of  Lords  Brougham 
and  Cottenham — Judgment  of  the  House  of  Lords — General 
Assembly  of  1839 — Speech  of  Dr.  Chalmers 97 

CHAPTER  Vn. 

First  Effort  of  the  Non-Intrusion  Committee — Deputation  to  Lon- 
don— Interviews  with  the  Leading  Politicians — Report  to  the 
Assembly's  Commission — Extracts  from  Private  Journal 124 

CHAPTER  VIH. 

The  Caso  of  Lethendy — The  Dean's  Advice — The  Presbytery's 
Procedure — The  Appearance  before  the  Court  of  Session — The 
Rebuke — The  Charge  of  Rebellion  brought  against  the  Church 
— Her  Answer  to  that  Charge — The  Constitutional  Question 
involved  in  the  Collision — Appeal  to  the  Legislature — Course 
taken  by  the  Moderates — Pamphlet  by  the  Dean  of  Faculty. .    134 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Case  of  Marnoch — The  Refractory  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie 
Their  Resolution  to  Disobey  the  Orders  of  the  Commission — 
The  Suspension  of  the  Seven  Ministers — The  Preaching  of  the 
Gospel  prohibited  in  the  District  of  Strathbogie — The  Broken 
Interdicts 147 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  X. 

PAGE 

Prospect  of  a  Satisfactory  Measure  from  the  Whig  Government — 
The  Hope  Defeated — The  Church  turns  to  the  Conservatives 
— Correspondence  between  Lord  Aberdeen,  Dr.  Chalmers,  and 
the  Non-Intrusion  Committee — The  Bill — The  Misunderstand- 
ing— The  Charge  made  by  Lord  Aberdeen — The  manner  in 
which  it  was  met  by  Dr.  Chalmers 1 57 

CHAPTER  XL 

The  Contrast  between  the  English  and  Scottish  Reformations — 
The  First  General  Assembly — Its  Independence  of  the  State — 
Conflict  between  the  Church  and  State  in  Scotland — Conduct 
and  Testimony  of  the  Church— The  Act  of  1592— The  Revolu- 
tion Settlement — Dr.  Chalmers's  Opinion  as  to  the  Two  Prin- 
ciples of  Non-Intrusion  and  Spiritual  Independence — Letter  to 
Lord  Aberdeen,  and  Speech  in  the  General  Assembly — Position 
and  Proceedings  of  the  Moderate  Party  in  the  Church — Speech 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel— Reply  by  Dr.  Chalmers 180 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Publication  of  Dr.  Alison's  Pamphlet  on  the  Administration  of 
the  Poor  Laws  in  Scotland — Dr.  Chalmers's  Efforts  to  Neutralize 
the  Effects  of  this  Publication — Discussion  at  the  Meeting  of 
the  British  Scientific  Association  held  at  Glasgow,  in  September, 
1840 — Publication  of  a  Volume  on  "The  Sufficiency  of  the 
Parochial  System  without  a  Poor-rate  for  the  right  Manage- 
ment of  the  Poor" — Correspondence  with  Mr.  Thomas  Carlyle 
and  Professor  Duncan — Lectures  to  the  Mechanics  of  Greenock 
on  the  Laws  and  Phenomena  of  Heat 201 

CHAPTER  XIIL 

Dr.  Chalmers's  Rejection  from  the  Chair  of  Theology  in  Glasgow- 
Narrative  of  the  Settlement  at  Marnoch — The  General  Assem- 
bly of  1841 — The  Deposition  of  the  Seven  Suspended  Clergy- 
men of  Strathbogie — The  Serving  of  an  Indictment  on  the 
General  Assembly — Dr.  Candlish's  Nomination  to  the  Chair  of 
Biblical  Criticism  superseded — Proposal  by  Mr.  Smith  of  Green- 
ock— The  Duke  of  Argyll's  Bill — Statement  to  the  Government 
by  the  Moderate  Party — Meeting  of  the  Commission  in  August 
First  prospect  of  the  Disruption — Failure  of  the  Negotiations 
by  Sir  George  Sinclair 216 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

PAGE 

The  Outer  and  Inner  History — Private  Journals  of  1840-41  — 
Horae  Biblicse  QuotidianaB — Horse  Biblicse  SabbaticEe 246 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Patronage  Abolished  by  the  Revolution  Settlement — The  Act  of 
Security  and  Treaty  of  Union — Patronage  Restored  by  the  Act 
of  Queen  Anne — Dr.  Chalmers  takes  part  in  the  Anti-Patronage 
Movement — Vindication  of  the  Step  in  his  Letter  to  the  Duke 
of  Argyll — Narrative  of  the  Settlement  at  Culsalmond — The 
Interdicts  of  the  Court  of  Session — Conduct  of  the  Government 
— The  new  Party  in  the  Church-=-Dr.  Chalmers's  Letter  to  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Bruce — The  General  Assembly  of  1842 — Motion  for 
the  Abolition  of  Patronage — The  Claim  of  Rights 268 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Summer  Residence  at  Rosstrevor — The  Premier's  Determination 
to  do  Nothing — The  Second  Auchterarder  Decision — The  Con- 
vocation     299 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Letter  to  Mr.  Lennox — Final  Answer  of  the  Government — Letter 
from  Sir  James  Graham — The  Debate  in  Parliament — The 
Claim  of  Rights  Rejected  by  the  Legislature — The  Disruption.   317 

CHAPTER  XVHI. 

The  Two  General  Assemblies — Progress  of  the  Free  Church — 
Characteristics  of  its  First  General  Assembly — Labors  and 
SufTerings  of  the  Summer  of  1843 — Dr.  Chalmers's  Su.stentation 
Tour 340 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  General  Assembly  of  1844 — Fruits  of  the  Yeai-'s  Labors — 
History  of  the  Sustentation  Fund — Proposed  Modification — Its 
Rejection  by  the  Free  Church 361 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Christian  Union — The  Evangelical  Alliance 379 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  ^XT. 

PAGE 

The  West  Port 385 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

Suggestions  for  altering  the  Curriculum  in  the  Scottish  Universi- 
ties— The  Course  of  Theological  Education — Dr.  Chalmers's 
Professorial  Career — Appointment  as  Principal  in  the  New  Col- 
lege— Institutes  of  Theology — The  North  British  Review — The 
German  Philosophy — The  Famine 409 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Last  Visit  to  Anstruther — Incident  at  Barnsmuii- — Sermon  at  St. 
Mary's  Loch — Cavers  Revisited — Domestic  Habits — Times 
and  Modes  of  Composition — Numerical  Adjustments — The 
Toilet — The  Breakfast  Table — Mode  of  Recognizing  his  Stu- 
dents— Conversational  Memoranda — Apostolic  Succession — 
The  Monasteries  and  the  Middle  Ages — American  Slavery — 
The  Spiritual  Rabbit- Warren — Excess  at  Table — Evening 
Readings  of  Gibbon,  Shakspeare,  and  Milton — Catechisms  and 
Confessions — Scripture  Characters — Life  at  Burntisland — 
Feeling  of  Youthfulness — Heavings  of  Incipient  Civilization — 
Janet  of  the  Gallowgate  and  the  Astronomical  Discourses — 
Consolatory  Letters 432 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Family  Correspondence 459 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  Success  of  the  Free  Church — Final  Verdict  of  Dr.  Chalmers 
on  Voluntaryism — The  Government  Scheme  of  Education — 
Paper  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Chalmers — Evidence  before  the  Sites' 
Committee — Visit  to  London  and  Gloucestershire — Return  to 
Edinburgh — His  Last  Sabbath — His  Death 477 


CONTENTS.^ 


APPENDIX. 

PAGE 

Appendix,  A. — Extract  from  Sedgewick's  "  Discourse  on  the 
Studies  of  the  University  of  Cambridge." 507 

Appendix,  B. — Extracts  from  Dr.  Ciialmers's  Correspondence 
on  the  Presbyterial  Veto 507 

Appendix,  C. — Claim,  Declaration,  and  Protest,  anent  the  En- 
croachments of  the  Court  of  Session ;  and  Protest  by  Commis- 
sioners to  General  Assembly 515 

Appendix,   D. — Address  to  the  Convocation  of  November,  1842  537 

Appendix,  E. — Extracts  from  "Considerations  on  the  Economics 
and  Platform  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland." 549 

Appendix,  F. — Explanatory  Notice  by  West  Port  Visitors 556 

Appendix,  G. — Balance  Sheet  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  Territorial 
Church,  West  Port,  for  year  ending  March,  1852 558 

Appendix,  H. — Account  by  Rev.  Mr.  Purves  of  Visit  to  Jed- 
burgh, &c 559 

Appendix,  I. — Matured  Expression  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  Sentiments 
on  the  Subject  of  Slavery  in  America 566 

Appendix,  K. — Extracts  from  Evidence  given  before  the  Select 
Committee  on  Sites  for  Churches. % 575 

Appendix,  L. — Account  of  Funeral 590 


MEMOIRS 


THOMAS  CHALMERS,  D.D.,  LL.D 


CHAPTER    I. 

LITERARY  DISTINCTIONS  CONFERRED  UPON  DR.  CHAL- 
MERS— ELECTED  A  FELLOW  OF  THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY 
OF  EDINBURGH,  AND  A  CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF 
THE  ROYAL  INSTITUTE  OF  FRANCE— THE  DEGREE 
OF  DOCTOR  OF  LAWS  BESTOWED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  OXFORD— MEMORIAL  TO  GOVERNMENT  REGARD- 
ING THE  ENDOWMENT  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  CHAIR 
IN  EDINBURGH— COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  PUBLICA- 
TION OF  A  UNIFORM  EDITION  OF  HIS  WORKS— THE 
MODERATORSHIP  CONTROVERSY. 

In  January,  1834,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  elected  a  Fellow 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  in  the  following 
year  was  chosen  as  one  of  its  Vice-Presidents.  In  January, 
1834  he  was  also  elected  a  Corresponding  Member  of  the 
Royal  Institute  of  France,  his  high  sense  of  which  distinc- 
tion Avas  thus  conveyed  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Academy 
into  which  he  was  admitted  : 

"  Sir — I  received  your  much  esteemed  communication  a 
good  many  days  ago,  and  have  only  been  prevented  by  bad 
health  from  sooner  acknowledging  the  proudest  of  my  literary 
honors. 


14  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  183.: 


"  My  engagements  may  disable  me  for  some  time  from 
offering  any  contribution  to  the  Memoirs  of  that  great  Insti- 
tute, but  I  can  not  imagine  a  higher  object  of  ambition  to 
him  who  aspires  after  a  name  ia  philosophy  than  to  have 
his  labors  associated  with  the  transactions  of  so  illustrious  a 
body. 

"  If  any  thing  could  have  added  to  the  satisfaction  I  feel 
in  being  connected  with  the  Institute  of  France,  it  is  that 
more  especial  connection  which  you  have  had  the  goodness 
to  assign  for  me  with  the  Academy  of  the  Moral  and  Politi- 
cal Sciences. — I  have  the  honor  to  be,  Sir,  yours  most  re- 
spectfully, Thomas  Chalmers." 

In  the  summer  of  1835,  another  high  literary  distinction 
was  conferred  upon  Dr.  Chalmers. 

Amid  the  delays  connected  with  Lord  John  Russell's 
motion  for  the  appointment  of  a  Royal  Commission,  and 
while  not  fully  recovered  from  the  effects  of  his  former  ill- 
ness, he  wrote  to  his  affectionate  friend,  Mr.  George  Sin- 
clair : — "  I  now  begin  to  be  jaded  and  overborne  wdth  Lon- 
don, and  with  the  single  exception  of  my  attendance  at  Court 
on  Wednesday,  it  will  be  my  wisdom  to  live  as  quietly  as 
possible.  I  spend  the  bulk  of  next  week  at  Walthamstow, 
and  then  leave  for  Oxford."^  This  visit  to  Oxford  was  a 
bright  interlude  amid  the  disappointing  negotiations  of  the 
metropolis.  He  had  received  the  gratifying  intelligence 
that  at  the  approaching  annual  commemoration  the  Univer- 
sity of  Oxford  intended  to  confer  upon  him  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws.  In  acknowdedging  this  unexpected  honor, 
Dr.  Chalmers  writes — "I  have  long  had  the  utmost  affec- 
tion and  reverence  for  the  University  of  Oxford,  but  I  never 
once  dreamed  of  the  possibility  of  in  any  manner  being  admit- 
ted within  its  pale.  I  truly  feel  it  to  be  an  honorable  re- 
lationship, and  must  confess  the  same  sort  of  complacency 

*  Letter  to  Mr.  Sinclair,  now  Sir  George  Sinclair,  Bart.,  dated  1 8th 
June.  1835. 


.^.T.  55.  THE  DEGREE  OF  LL.D.  15 


which  one  has  in  some  great  and  splendid  connection  into 
which  he  has  newly  entered.  Though  but  the  adopted  son. 
of  your  venerable  mother,  I  trust  she  will  ever  find  me  one 
of  the  most  devoted  members  of  her  great  family ;  a  senti- 
ment which  I  shall  all  the  more  fondly  cherish  that  I  believe 
in  the  strong  hold  which  this  ancient,  this  noble,  this  truly 
national  institute,  has  on  the  affections  of  the  many  thousands 
of  her  children,  who  are  the  wisest  of  our  countrymen,  not 
only  as  regards  the  cause  of  learning,  but  as  regards  the 
cause  of  social  order  and  rational  liberty  in  these  our  vexed 
and  agitated  times." 

In  the  theatre  of  the  University,  and  in  the  presence  of 
a  brilliant  assemblage,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  invested  with  this 
distinguished  honor.  On  presenting  him  to  the  Vice- Chan- 
cellor and  Proctors,  the  gentleman  who  officiated  for  the 
Professor  of  the  Civil  law  made  the  following  speech  : 

"  Insignissime  Vice-Cancellarie,  vosque  egregii  Procura- 
tores,  prsesento  vobis  venerandum  et  doctissimum  virum 
Thomam  Chalmers,  Regies  Societatis  Socium,  Publicum 
TheologisB  apud  Edinenses  Professorem,  benignitate,  doctrina, 
facundia,  ut  quem  maxime,  insignitum  ;  qui  pauperum  sor- 
tem  miseratus  in  melius  promovere  pro  virili  semper  studuit, 
'humani  nihil  a  se  alienum  putans  ;'  qui,  ecclesise  Scoticee 
acerrimus  propugnator,  ecclesiae  Anglicanse  quoque,  idque 
dubiis  et  formidolosis  temporibus,  gravissimus  vindex  extitit; 
ea,  qua  merito  apud  suos  auctoritate  pollet,  semper  usus,  ad 
mutuam  benevolentiam  ac  caritatem  fovendam,  omni  asper- 
itate,  omni  invidia  amota  ;  qui,  cum  visum  est  opus  magni- 
ficum,  a  Comite  de  Briilgewater  excogitatum  pluribus  de- 
mandare,  a  viro  spectatissimo,  quem  coram  cernitis,  D.  Gil- 
bert, Regise  Societati  praesidenti  dehgebatur,  ut  dignissimus 
qui  cum  celeberimis  Oxonii  et  Cantabrigise  Philosophis  con- 
sociaretur  cum  Professoribus  nostris  J.  Kidd,  G.  Buckland, 
eo  pra3claruit  ingenio,  ea  scientia,  ut  is  potissimum  haberetur, 
cui  partes  primarias  mandarentur,  summi  Numinis  potentiam, 
sapientiam,   bonitatem,   providentiam  indicandi  :   quo  operc^ 


16  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1835. 

quanta  copia,  quanto  acuminc  perfunctus  sit,  minirne  qiiidera 
opus  est,  ut  apud  hodiernam  frequentiam  loquar.  Profes- 
sorem  igitur  venerandum,  doctissimum,  praisentans  vobis 
gratulor  huic  nostras  academise,  quod,  quern  diu  miratus 
est  absentem,  hunc  hodie  prcBsentem  quasi  gremio  accipiat, 
admittatque  ad  gradum  doctoris  in  jure  civili  honoris  causa." 
In  the  reading  of  this  address  as  mention  was  made  of 
Dr.  Chalmers's  eloquence,  of  his  defense  of  the  English 
Establishment,  and  of  his  Bridgewater  Treatise,  three  dis- 
tinct rounds  of  loud  and  unanimous  approbation  rose  from 
the  assembled  students  of  the  University.  The  only  written 
notice  taken  by  himself  of  a  day  so  memorable  in  his  history, 
occurs  in  the  following  letter  to  Lady  Stuart  of  Allanbank : 

"  Oxford,  1st  July,  1835. 

"  My  dear.  Lady  Stuart — I  write  from  this  place,  from 
which  I  had  fondly  hoped  that  we  might  have  found  our 
way  homeward  by  land,  and  spend  a  day  or  two  with  you 
and  Sir  James  at  Harrogate,  but  the  interminable  delays  to 
which  we  have  been  exposed  in  London  necessitate  my  re- 
turn thereto,  after  which  we  shall  feel  the  temptation  of  a 
quick  and  less  fatiguing  movement  to  Edinburgh  by  sea, 
This  is  a  real  disappointment  to  us,  believing,  as  we  do,  that 
we  should  have  had  a  warm-hearted  reception  at  Harrogate, 
enjoying,  as  we  should  have  done,  the  kind  converse  of  old 
friends  after  weeks  spent  among  strangers. 

"  We  are  here  living  for  a  few  days  with  the  Professor 
of  Divinity  at  Christ  Church,  Dr.  Burton,  where  we  are 
entertained  with  'all  the  elegance  of  lettered  hospitality.' 
Since  beginning  this  letter,  which  I  have  been  forced  to  in- 
terrupt, I  have  been  present  at  the  great  annual  Oxford 
commemoration,  where  I  have  had  the  honor  of  being  ad- 
mitted as  an  LL.D.  This  entitles  me  to  a  Doctor's  robes, 
in  which  I  have  been  invested,  and  of  which  I  tell  you, 
without  levity,  that  I  am  not  a  little  proud.  The  costume 
consists  of  a  scarlet  silk  gown  and  black  silk  cap.      I  shall 


JF.T.  55.        LETTER  TO  LADY  STUART.  17 


take  a  set  of  it  with  rae  into  Scotland  ;  and  meanwhile, 
during  my  brief  stay  in  Oxford,  I  walk  about  in  a  doctor's 
black  gown,  with  the  common  University  cap.  We  all 
dined  to-day  in  full  academic  costume,  with  gown  and  bands. 
The  most  interesting  introduction  which  I  have  had  in 
Oxford  is  to  Keble  the  poet,  author  of  the  '  Christian  Year,' 
a  work  of  exquisite  beauty,  and  the  most  worthy  of  your 
personal,  nay  of  your  daily  companionship,  if  you  have  not 
yet  admitted  it  into  your  cabinet.  Mrs.  C.  and  I  lived  a 
few  days  lately  within  sight  of  Sir  James's  house  in  Regent 
Park.  We  thought  much  of  you  and  of  your  predilection 
for  all  that  is  tasteful.  The  house  is  greatly  to  my  liking, 
both  in  architecture  and  in  a  certain  monastic  style  and 
situation  which  belong  to  it.  Our  ladies  here  join  in  best 
regards  :  they  are  quite  fagged  with  their  excursions  among 
the  halls  and  colleges  of  this  wondrous  place,  this  city  of 
cathedrals. — I  ever  am  yours,  with  greatest  regard, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  To  Lady  Stuart  of  Allaubank,  Harrogate." 

"I  retain,"  says  the  Earl  of  Elgin,  of  whose  kind  atten- 
tions to  him  at  this  time.  Dr.  Chalmers  cherished  a  lively 
and  most  grateful  remembrance,  "  a  very  pleasing  impression 
of  Dr.  Chalmers's  visit  to  Oxford  in  1835.  I  do  not  know 
that  I  ever  saw  him  enjoy  himself  more  thoroughly  than  he 
seemed  to  do  on  that  occasion.  With  the  exception,  indeed, 
of  the  degree  conferred  upon  him  by  the  University,  Dr. 
Chalmers's  visit  to  Oxford  was  not  marked  by  any  very 
striking  incident.  What  was  chiefly  interesting  to  one  who 
esteemed  and  admired  him,  was  to  witness  the  heartiness 
with  which  he  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  place,  and  the 
almost  boyish  delight  which  he  seemed  to  experience,  after 
the  toils  of  his  sojourn  in  London,  in  suffering  his  imagin- 
ation to  expatiate  among  scenes  of  academic  grandeur  and 
repose.  I  well  remember  his  coming  to  my  apartment  at 
Merton,   before  eight  o'clock  one  morning,  and  telling  uie 


18  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1835. 

of  a  sequestered  court  which  he  had  found  in  a  college,  into 
which  he  had  strayed  on  his  way  from  Christ  Church,  and 
the  earnestness  with  which  he  claimed  credit  for  having  thus 
discovered  for  himself  a  spot  of  surpassing  beauty,  which 
could,  he  assured  me,  be  known  to  few.  I  remember,  too, 
the  serious  manner  in  which,  while  we  were  strolling  in  the 
college  garden,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  day  on  which  his 
degree  was  conferred  on  him,  he  apologized  for  the  extrava- 
gance of  which  he  had  been  guilty  in  purchasing  the  robes 
of  a  Doctor  of  Civil  Law,  notwithstanding  the  precautions 
I  had  taken  to  relieve  him  from  this  necessity,  saying,  '  You 
see  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  leave  the  place,  without 
carrying  away  with  me  some  memorial  of  the  academic 
costume.' 

"  On  the  day  following  his  arrival  at  Oxford,  I  was  re- 
quested to  endeavor  to  ascertain  whether  it  would  be  agree- 
able to  him  to  receive  an  honorary  degree  from  the  Uni- 
versity ;  and  I  had  afterward  the  satisfaction  of  being  pres- 
ent when  it  was  conferred  on  him.  Rarely  have  I  wit- 
nessed as  much  enthusiasm  in  the  Oxford  theatre,  as  was 
manifested  when  he  presented  himself  to  go  through  the 
ceremony  of  admission.  This  was  the  more  gratifying,  be- 
cause it  was  notorious  that  on  some  by  no  means  imma- 
terial points,  his  views  were  not  co-incident  with  those  which 
obtained  at  the  time  with  an  influential  section  of  the  Ox- 
ford University  public.  Indeed,  the  only  expression  of  re- 
gret which  fell  from  him  in  my  hearing  during  the  course 
of  his  visit,  had  reference  to  the  reserve  which  characterized, 
as  he  thought,  the  manner  of  some  eminent  men,  connected 
with  a  certain  theological  party,  to  whom  he  was  intro- 
duced, and  which  prevented  him  from  touching,  in  conver- 
sation with  them,  upon  topics  of  highest  import,  with  the 
frank  and  genial  earnestness  which  was  natural  to  him. 
This  was,  however,  only  a  passing  remark.  Most  assured- 
ly there  was  no  indication  of  lack  of  cordiality  in  his  recep- 
tion by  Convocation.      Dr.  Chalmers  was  himself  deeply  af- 


JET.  55.  LETTER  TO  MR.  SINCLAIR.  19 

fected  by  the  warmth  with  which  he  was  greeted  ;  and  I 
think  I  might  almost  venture  to  say  that  he  looked  upon 
this  visit  to  Oxford  as  one  of  the  most  pleasing  incidents  in 
his  career."* 

I  am  not  aware  of  any  other  Scottish  clergyman  being 
either  invested  with  a  Doctor's  robes  at  Oxford,  or  chosen 
as  a  Corresponding  Member  of  the  French  Institute.  In 
Dr.  Chalmers  two  literary  distinctions  were  thus  united, 
neither  of  which  had  ever  previously  been  bestowed  upon  a 
clergyman  of  the  Scottish  Establishment. 

While  France  and  England  conferred  these  unsolicited 
honors,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  in  vain  endeavoring  to  secure  an 
adequate  endowment  for  the  chair  which  he  held  in  Edin- 
burgh. In  the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Sinclair,  who  had 
taken  the  liveliest  interest  in  this  object,  he  details  the  cir- 
cumstances which  had  induced  him  to  memorialize  the 
Government. 

"June  \8th,  1835. 

"  My  dear  Sir — In  reply  to  your  kind  letter  of  inquiry 
respecting  the  endowments  which  belong  to  the  Professor  of 
Theology  in  Edinburgh,  I  have  to  state  that  the  facts  of 
the  case  are  very  shortly  as  follows  : 

"  You  are  aware  of  the  long  struggle  which  took  place 
in  the  General  Assembly  against  the  practice  of  uniting 
professorships  with  Church-livings.  I  myself  took  a  part 
against  such  pluralities  ;  and  you  may  recollect  how  the 
great  argument  against  the  full  and  final  abolition  of  them 
was  the  unprovided  state  of  the  Theological  Chairs  in  the 
University  of  Edinburgh.  I  confess  that  one  of  my  induce- 
ments for  the  acceptance  of  one  of  these  chairs  was  to  put 
an  end  to  that  argument.  At  the  time  of  my  entering  on 
the  professorship  which  I  now  hold,  and  which  was  in  No- 

*  Letter  from  the  Earl  of  Elgin  to  Sir  John  Maxwell,  Bart.,  of 
Polloc.  dated  Quebec,  November  7.  1851. 


20  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

vember,  1828,  the  salary  of  £196  a  year  formed  the  sum 
total  of  the  emoluments  of  the  office.  At  that  time  fees 
were  not  exigible  from  the  students  of  Divinity. 

"  The  first  step  toward  the  increase  of  the  emoluments 
took  place  in  1829.  It  was  ordained  by  the  Town-Council, 
who  are  the  patrons  of  the  University,  and  have  absolute 
power  over  its  arrangements,  that  each  professional  student 
should  pay  a  fee  of  X2  2s.  a  year,  and  each  non-professional, 
a  fee  of  £3  3s.  It  should  be  remarked,  that  scarcely  ever 
had  it  been  the  practice  for  non-professional  students  to  at- 
tend the  theological  class,  and  far  less  to  pay  for  their  at- 
tendance. Certain  it  is,  that  any  revenue  from  their  fees 
ought  not  to  be  counted  on  in  estimating  the  sure  and  reg- 
ular income  of  the  profes.sor.  In  point  of  fact,  my  income 
last  year  from  the  professional  students  amounted  to  about 
X300,  and  from  the  ncn-profes.«ional  to  a  little  above  <£100 
more.  But  the  proper  Avay  of  reckoning  the  future  likeli- 
hoods of  the  professional  income  from  fees  alone,  would  be 
to  restrict  the  computation  to  professional  students,  I  mean 
those  who  are  destined  for  the  Church  ;  and  it  would  be 
injurious  both  to  myself  and  to  my  successors,  if  this  were 
rated  at  any  sum  above  £300  a  year. 

"  But  more  than  this.  Within  these  two  years  a  great 
disaster  has  befallen  the  office  :  the  Town-Council  has  be- 
come inisolvent.  The  salaries  of  the  professors,  in  as  far  as 
they  are  paid  by  the  City  Corporation  (and,  unfortunately, 
the  whole  of  mine  is  so  paid),  are  suspended.  By  an  adverse 
decision  of  the  Court  of  Session,  all  hope  of  redress  is  put 
off  for  an  indefinite  period.  For  these  three  last  terms  I 
have  received  no  half-yearly  salary  ;  and  my  strictly  pro- 
fessional income  is  reduced  to  £300  annually.  The  addi- 
tional £100  from  non-professional  students  ought  not  to  be 
counted  in  any  general  measure  for  the  permanent  provision 
of  our  University  offices  ;  and,  at  all  events,  this  incidental 
addition  to  my  emoluments  does  not  save  from  the  *  res 
angitata  domi^'  in    a   case  where   the   expenditure   in   my 


MT.  56.  LETTER  TO  MR.  CUNNINGHAM.  21 

station,  with  its  various  exposures,  is  such,  that  I  have  not 
yet  been  able  to  restrain  it  to  £800  a  year. 

"  In  these  circumstances,  I  do  not  think  that  I  have  at 
all  erred  in  accepting  of  a  Chaplaincy,  whose  emoluments 
are  bnly  £50  a  year,  even  though  its  duties  are  so  small 
that  the  obnoxious  name  of  a  sinecure  is  attached  to  it. 
There  are  greatly  too  few  of  such  sinecures  in  Scotland, 
which,  if  only  well-bestowed,  might  have  the  efiect  of  sup- 
plying the  great  desideratum  of  our  meagrely  endowed 
Church — certain  places  or  provisions  for  men  who  might  be 
in  circumstances  of  independence  and  leisure  for  theological 
pursuits,  and  so  for  upholding  our  professional  literature. 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

The  memorial  to  Government  embraced  a  similar  repre- 
sentation, but  it  led  to  no  result.  The  continued  suspen- 
sion of  his  salary  induced  Dr.  Chalmers  to  listen  to  his  pub- 
lisher's proposal  of  issuing  in  quarterly  volumes  a  cheap  and 
uniform  edition  of  his  works.  The  publication  commenced 
in  January,  1836,  and  soon  after  the  appearance  of  the 
second  volume  of  the  series,  the  following  letter  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cunningham  of  Harrow  : 

"Burntisland,  A2Jril  20th,  1836. 

"  My  dear  Sir — My  object  in  this  communication  is  to 
request  a  favor  from  you.  I  am  now  republishing  my  works 
in  a  uniform  edition  of  small  volumes,  which  will  come  out 
quarterly.  I  have  certainly  great  reason  to  be  pleased  with 
the  reception  which  my  publications  have  met  in  England, 
considering  the  harsh  and  injurious  treatment  which  I  have 
suffered  from  so  many  of  the  London  periodicals — owing, 
I  believe,  partly  to  the  political  hostility  of  some  of  the 
editors  ;   partly,  I  fear,  to  a  personal  hostility,  as  in  the  case 

of  the  ;    and,   lastly,  to  the  strong   antipathy  felt  by 

others  to  my  views  on  pauperism.      While  I  assign  these  as 
exciting  causes,  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  possibility  that  a 


22  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

great  deal  is  due  to  the  intrinsic  demerit  of  the  works  them- 
selves. 

"  However  this  may  be,  there  is  one  circumstance  which 
I  suspect  is  working  prejudicially  against  me,  and  that  is 
the  idea  of  its  being  a  mere  republication,  with  no  original 
matter  in  it  at  all.  Now,  it  so  happens  that  the  great  ma- 
jority of  my  five  first  volumes  will  be  altogether  new,  and 
that  of  the  two  first,  already  published,  and  which  finishes 
my  views  on  Natural  Theology,  the  Bridgewater  Treatise  is 
merely  a  fragment  of  the  whole. 

"  Now  my  request  is,  that  you  will  draw  the  attention  of 
any  of  the  London  reviewers  to  the  new  matter  of  my  works. 
The  '  Christian  Observer'  and  *  British  Beview'  have  all 
along  been  very  fair  and  friendly  ;  and  I  confess  myself 
unwilling  that  the  large  additions  which  I  propose  making 
to  all  my  theological  volumes,  should  be  altogether  unob- 
served by  them.  Thomas  Chalmers," 

To  his  necessary  preparations  for  the  press,  and  his  daily 
labors  in  the  University,  another  heavy  burden  was  now 
added.  The  Commissioners  of  Beligious  Instruction  began 
their  inquiries  at  Edinburgh,  and  Dr.  Chalmers  was  deeply 
sensible  of  the  difficulty  and  importance  of  making  an  efiect- 
ive  representation  of  the  religious  state  of  the  metropolis. 
He  resisted  a  proposal  made  by  the  opponents  of  Church 
Extension,  that  a  joint  survey  should  be  made  of  the  whole 
city,  conducted  by  persons  appointed  by  both  parties.  Con- 
ceiving that  such  a  survey  must  necessarily  be  superficial, 
and  that  it  would  fail  to  bring  out  the  actual  condition  as 
to  attendance  on  religious  ordinances  of  the  lowest  and  most 
destitute  classes  of  the  community,  he  preferred  the  confine- 
ment of  his  own  inquiries  to  certain  definite  localities  which 
could  be  thoroughly  explored.  His  agents  had  completed 
in  this  way  their  survey  of  districts,  embracing  a  population 
of  20,000  souls,  when  a  digested  statement  of  the  results 
was  laid  by  him  before  the  Royal  Commissioners  in  Feb- 


JET.  56.    ECCLESIASTICAL  STATISTICS  OF  EDINBURGH.     23 

ruary,  1836.  In  a  lengthened  examination  before  the  Com- 
missioners, he  explained  the  manner  in  which  the  statistics 
contained  in  this  document  had  been  made  up,  and  illus- 
trated the  grounds  and  principles  of  the  Church  Extension 
Scheme.  That  scheme  was  in  a  crisis  of  its  history.  The 
Government  having  virtually  pledged  itself  to  act  upon  the 
returns  of  its  Commissioners,  it  was  of  the  first  importance 
to  obtain  from  these  Commissioners  a  favorable  report.  It 
was  with  the  deepest  mortification,  therefore,  that  Dr.  Chal- 
mers learned  of  the  evidence  given  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Lee, 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  that 
it  was  in  many  respects  unfriendly  to  that  great  cause  whose 
progress  he  was  watching  over  with  parental  jealousy,  to 
touch  or  injure  which  was  to  touch  the  very  apple  of  his 
eye.  The  pain  inflicted  thus,  was  aggravated  by  a  small 
but  influential  body  of  ministers  and  laymen  in  Edinburgh 
being  resolved  to  raise  this  clergyman  to  the  Moderator's 
chair  of  the  General  Assembly.  To  do  this  at  a  time  when 
the  gravest  questions  were  pending  between  the  Government 
and  the  Church,  appeared  to  Dr.  Chalmers  to  be  a  measure 
fraught  with  extreme  peril.  The  friends  of  Dr.  Lee,  how- 
ever, were  as  resolute  in  urging  his  claims  as  Dr.  Chalmers 
was  resolute  in  resisting  them  ;  and  other  measures  having 
failed  to  induce  them  to  withdraw  his  name.  Dr.  Chalmers, 
in  a  pamphlet  of  extraordinary  power,  published  early  in 
1837,  made  a  public  exposure  of  the  grounds  upon  which 
he  repudiated  this  appointment.  It  may  freely  be  conceded 
now,  that  the  evil  which  an  unfriendly  or  hostile  moderator 
would  have  it  in  his  power  to  inflict  upon  his  favorite 
scheme,  appeared  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  to  others,  in  an  ex- 
aggerated form.  He  may  have  erred  also,  in  assigning  so 
much  of  a  political  character  to  the  movement  which  he 
opposed.  And  had  his  resentment  been  less  strong  against 
those,  of  whom  he  too  hastily  beHeved  that  they  were  ready 
to  sacrifice  the  best  interests  of  the  Church  at  the  shrine  of 
political  partisanship,  many  vehement  expressions  had  been 


24  iMEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

withheld.  Believing,  however,  that  great  interests  were 
in  danger,  unrestrained  by  mere  personal  considerations,  he 
vented  his  indignation  in  the  strongest  terms  he  could  em- 
ploy. His  pamphlet  was  followed  in  a  few  weeks  by  a 
statement  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Lee's  supporters,  in  which  he 
was  directly  charged  with  artful  and  "  perverse  twisting  of 
circumstances  ;"  with  "  having  well  learned  his  lesson  from 
the  serpent;"  with  "deceptive  concealment;"  with  a  "pre- 
sumptuous assumption  to  himself  of  the  whole  charge  of 
the  Church  Extension  Scheme  ;"  with  "  bhnd  and  relentless 
virulence,"  and  a  "total  disregard  to  truth."  It  is  difficult 
to  conceive  that  these  charges  were  understood  by  those 
who  made  them  in  their  literal  and  most  ofiensive  sense  ; 
but  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  so  long  as  they  re- 
mained unexplained  and  unretracted,  they  should  have  in- 
flicted acute  pain,  and  kindled  the  keenest  indignation.  The 
first  time  that  Dr.  Chalmers  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  after  the  appearance  of  the  State- 
ment, he  took  occasion  to  allude  to  these  accusations.  "I 
will  not,"  he  said,  "  descend  to  any  treatment  whatever 
of  the  hideous  charges. =^  I  never  could  make  their  utter 
groundlessness  the  subject  of  an  argument  with  others,  or 
strive  to  render  palpable  to  them  by  reasoning,  what  was 
already  far  more  palpable  to  myself  than  any  reasoning 
could  make  it,  in  the  immediate  light  of  my  own  conscious- 
ness. Certain  it  is,  that  the  accusations,  if  true,  should 
banish  me  from  society  ;  and,  at  all  events,  must,  till  re- 
tracted, break  up  all  my  companionship  with  their  authors. 
It  is  quite  obvious  that  as  matters  now  stand,  there  can  be 
no  intercourse,  and  no  recognition  between  us ;  and  that 
without   an  entire  disavowal,  on  their  part,   of  one  and  all 

*  Although  he  attempted  no  personal  defense,  he  was  ably  and 
effectively  vindicated  from  the  charges  which  had  been  brought  against 
him,  in  two  pamphlets  by  the  Rev.  W.  Cunningham  and  the  Rev.  .T. 
Bruce,  of  whose  friendly  intervention  he  always  retained  the  liveliest 
and  most  cri'f^teful  remembrance. 


&T.  5G.     MODERATORSHIP  CONTROVERSY.         25 

of  the  moral  charges,  even  the  forms  of  acquaintanceship 
can  not  be  maintained.  I  ask  from  them  nothing  for  the 
purpose  of  making  me  right,  and  it  is  for  them  to  determine 
whether  they  are  to  do  something  for  the  purpose  of  making 
themselves  right.  For  myself,  I  am  satisfied  with  the  ap- 
pearance and  the  declaration  that  I  now  make,  and  count  it 
simply  enough  to  show  the  Presbytery  that,  notwithstand- 
ing the  foul  and  ferocious  assaults  that  have  been  made  upon 
me,  I  can  still  lift  an  unabashed  visage  in  their  presence, 
and  am  delighted  to  hear  the  sound  of  my  own  voice  again 
in  the  midst  of  Christian  and  honorable  men." 

It  did  little  or  nothing  to  heal  this  deadly  breach  that, 
sympathizing  with  Dr.  Chalmers's  alarms,  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  General  Assembly  refused  to  raise  Dr.  Lee 
to  the  Moderator's  chair.  The  question  as  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  moderator  was  felt  to  be  trivial,  as  compared  with 
the  personal  controversy  to  which  it  had  given  birth.  Most 
anxious  efforts  were  made  to  bring  this  painful  controversy  tc 
a  close,  and  five  leading  members  of  the  Presbytery  volunteered 
their  services  as  mediators.  With  Dr.  Chalmers  there  was 
no  difficulty.  He  had  never  meant  to  question  the  integrity 
or  asperse  the  honor  of  Dr.  Lee  or  any  of  his  supporters  ; 
and  if  any  passage  in  his  pamphlet  was  capable  of  being  in- 
terpreted so  as  to  imply  such  charges,  he  was  ready  to  affirm 
that  such  was  not  his  own  understanding  of  them,  and  that 
had  he  thought  them  capable  of  being  so  understood  he  would 
have  expressed  himself  differently.  Had  any  public  interest 
required,  no  difficulty  would  have  been  experienced  in  vin- 
dicating the  position  toward  his  opponents  which  Dr.  Chal- 
mers was  forced  to  occupy;  nay,  I  believe  that  the  moral 
greatness  of  his  character  never  gave  more  striking  manifest- 
ations of  itself  than  in  some  passages  of  this  very  conflict. 
But  I  will  not  enter  farther  into  the  history  of  this  most 
distressing  affair.  The  conflict  touched  no  vital  question  ; 
it  is  now,  happily,  almost  forgotten.  The  breach,  wide  as 
at  the  time  it  was,  a  few  years  sufficed  to  heal.  It  was  the 
Vol.  IV.— B 


26  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

quarrel  of  Christian  men,  devoted  to  the  same  objects,  though 
at  this  time  pursuing  them  by  different  paths ;  and  the 
strength  of  their  common  Christianity  showed  itself  in  this, 
that  at  last  every  moral  charge  which  had  been  made  was 
retracted,  and  they  came  to  look  upon  one  another  with 
mutual  confidence  and  regard. 

While  the  moderatorship  controversy  was  at  its  height,  an 
aged  clergyman,  as  venerable  for  piety  as  for  years,  in  writing 
to  Dr.  Chalmers  had  referred  to  the  adverse  spiritual  influ- 
ences of  such  strife. 

''January  9tk,  1838. 

"  I  have  often  felt,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers  in  reply,  "  that  the 
bustle  of  too  active  and  varied  a  sphere  of  exertion  is  adverse 
to  the  growth  of  one's  personal  and  spiritual  Christianity. 
In  my  own  case  this  hostile  influence,  I  fear,  has  been  of 
late  much  aggravated  by  the  injustice  which  I  have  received 
at  the  hands  of  old  acquaintances,  and  what  is  still  more  try- 
ing, by  the  disappointment  I  have  met  with  at  the  hands  of 
old  friends,  who,  in  their  extreme  love  of  peace,  have  reversed 
the  apostolical  order  of  first  2^ure  and  tke?i  peaceable,  and 
who,  by  their  eagerness  for  peace  and  neglect  of  principle, 
have  left  me  to  complain  of  calumnies  still  unretracted — of 
grievances  still  unredressed. 

"But  these  are  matters  which  I  trust  that  God  in  His 
good  time  will  enable  me  to  forget ;  they  are  things  which 
are  beneath,  and  the  best  way  of  escape  from  them  is  to  set 
my  thoughts  on  the  things  which  are  above.  In  the  hand 
of  the  heavenly  Witness  every  cause  of  verity  is  safe,  and  I 
entreat  your  prayers  for  the  perfecting  within  me  of  that  work 
of  patience  and  charity  which  if  left  undone  may  leave  me 
in  the  state  of  him  who  walketh  in  darkness  and  knoweth 
not  whither  he  goeth.  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Muirhead." 

More  than  two  years  after  this  letter  was  written,  the  fol- 
lowing entries  occur  in  Dr.  Chalmers's  journal : 


iET.  56.     MODERATORSHIP  CONTROVERSY.         27 

"  March  26th,  1840. — Dr. this  day  proposed  a  re- 
conciliation. O  my  God,  I  draw  upon  Thee  for  wisdom  and 
charity  :  the  preparations  of  the  mouth,  the  answer  of  the 
heart  are  Thine.  May  a  sense  of  my  gross  and  awful  delin- 
quencies against  Thy  holy  law  be  ever  present  with  me  ;  and 
O  let  me  acquit  myself  in  this  and  every  similar  affair  so  as 
that  with  unfaltering  heart  I  may  he  enabled  to  say,  »  For- 
give my  trespasses,  even  as  I  forgive  those  who  have  tres- 
passed against  me.' 

"  March  SOth. — Had  a  meeting  with .      Clear  my 

way,  O  God,  through  the  difficulties  which  lie  in  that  quarter. 

"  April  1st. — The  prayer  of  two  days  ago  has  been  an- 
swered. Visited  in  the  morning  by  the  suggestion  that  as 
this  was  the  last  day  of  our  session  I  should  have  another 

interview  with ,  which  has  turned  out  promising,  and 

leads  to  the  hope  that  I  may  yet  die  in  peace  with  all  man- 
kind. Previous  to  the  conversation  I  committed  both  the  guid- 
ance and  result  of  it  to  God." 

His  prayers  were  anwered — his  hope  fulfilled — "  the  hand 
of  the  heavenly  Witness"  was  laid  with  healing  power  upon 
the  last  and  the  worst  breach  which  this  unhappy  controversy 
had  created.  Ere  long  the  graver  perils  of  the  Church  in- 
vited to  another  and  nobler  conflict,  in  which  the  pleasing 
spectacle  was  presented  of  those,  whom  this  lesser  strife  had 
separated,  standing  side  by  side  among  the  front-rank  de- 
fenders of  the  Church  purity  and  independence,  co-operating 
with  entire  cordiality  and  unbroken  confidence. 


CHAPTER  II. 

SIR  GEORGE  CLERK  AND  SIR  JAMES  GRAHAM  DEFEND 
THE  EXCLUSIVE  SPIRITUAL  JURISDICTION  OF  THE 
CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND  — SUPPORT  GIVEN  TO  THE 
CHURCH  EXTENSION  SCHEME  BY  THE  CONSERVA- 
TIVES— SIR  ROBERT  PEEL'S  TESTIMONY  IN  ITS  FAVOR 
—ITS  TREvATMENT  BY  THE  WHIG  MINISTRY— FIRST 
REPORT  OF  THE,  ROYAL  COMMISSIONERS— POSTPONE- 
MENT  OF  ANY  GOVERNMENT  ACTION— SECOND  AND 
THIRD  REPORTS— MINISTERIAL  MEASURE  PROPOSED 
AND  WITHDRAWN— GENERAL  POLITICS  OF  THIS  PE- 
RIOD—DR.  CHALMERS'S  LETTER  TO  MR.  CAMPBELL 
OF  MONZIE— HIS  OWN  DEFENSE  OF  HIS  CONDUCT— 
THE  KING^S  DEATH— FIRST  LEVEE  OF  QUEEN  VIC- 
TORIA  — THE  GENERAL  ELECTION— CORRESPOND- 
ENCE  WITH  SIR  ROBERT  PEEL— HOME  OPERATIONS 
ON  BEHALF  OF  CHURCH  EXTENSION— THEIR  EXTRA- 
ORDINARY SUCCESS. 

In  July,  1836,  a  petition  was  presented  to  the  House  of 
Commons  containing  grave  accusations  against  the  superior 
authorities  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  The  petitioner,  a  Kil- 
marnock bailie,  had  been  deprived  of  his  office  as  an  Elder 
of  the  Church,  in  consequence  of  having  presided  at  a  meet- 
ing called  for  the  purpose  of  petitioning  the  Legislature  against 
the  union  of  Church  and  State,  Having  appealed  in  vain 
to  the  General  Assemblies  of  1834  and  1835,  by  whom  the 
sentence  of  the  inferior  Courts  had  been  confirmed,  he  now 
applied  to  the  House  of  Commons  to  protect  his  character 
from  the  injuries  to  which  such  proceedings  had  exposed  it. 
No  sooner  had  the  case  of  the  petitioner  been  stated  than  Sir 
George  Clerk  rose  and  said,  "  that  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  take 
an  objection  in  limine  to  the  reception  of  this  petition.  He 
would  call  upon  the  House  to  refuse  to  receive  the  petition,  on 
the  ground  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  did  not  admit  of  the 


JET.  56.    SPIRITUAL  JURISDICTION  OF  THE  CHURCH.        29 

interference  of  any  civil  authority  in  matters  relating  to  the 
internal  discipline  of  that  Church  :  that  right  was  sanction- 
ed by  the  Claim  of  Rights  presented  by  Scotland  to  King 
William  III.  at  the  Revolution ;  it  was  sanctioned  and  estab- 
lished by  the  convention  Parliament  then  held  in  Scotland, 
and  it  was  guaranteed  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  by  the  Act 
of  Union.  He  was  ready  to  admit — the  Church  of  Scotland 
was  ready  to  admit — that  in  all  civil  matters  connected  with 
that  Church  the  Legislature  had  a  right  to  interfere.  The 
Church  of  Scotland  did  not  refuse  to  render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  that  were  Caesar's,  but  it  would  not  allow  of  an  in- 
terference with  its  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  rights,  ratified 
as  they  had  been  in  the  manner  he  had  stated,  and  which 
constituted  the  independence  of  the  Church  Goverment  of 
Scotland."  Sir  James  Graham  warmly  seconded  these  views. 
"  What  the  people  of  Scotland  had  conquered  with  their  arms 
had  been  recognized  and  guaranteed  to  them  by  repeated  acts 
of  Parliament,  and  the  Act  of  Union  had  recognized  the  in- 
dependence of  their  Church  as  complete  and  entire.  The 
Church  of  Scotland  acknowledged  the  right  of  no  authority  to 
interfere  with  their  ecclesiastical  Government.  They  recog- 
nized not  the  Sovereign  of  the  realms  as  the  head  of  their 
Church,  and  he  (Sir  James  Graham)  would  always  contend 
for  the  privileges  which  that  Church  had  guaranteed  to  it 
by  the  Union."  =^ 

The  Parliamentary  leaders  of  the  Conservative  party  were, 
without  exception,  as  zealous  supporters  of  the  extension  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  as  these  two  right  honourable  bar- 
onets were  upon  this  occasion  zealous  defenders  of  her  juris- 
diction. The  introduction  of  the  topic  into  the  King's  Speech 
was  not  the  only  evidence  which  Dr.  Chalmers  had  of  the 
friendly  intentions  of  the  short-lived  ministry  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel  in  the  spring  of  1835.  And  afterward,  whenever  any 
Parliamentary  effort  was  made  to  force  the  subject  upon  the 
attention  of  the  Government,  and  persuade  them  to  endow, 
*  Hansardj  vol.  xxxv.  pp.  575,  581. 


30  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Sir  William  Rae  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  Lords  Aberdeen  and  Haddington  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  were  the  foremost  and  the  heartiest  in  urging  the  claims 
of  the  Church  Extension  Scheme.  At  the  banquet  given  to 
Sir  Pvobert  Peel  in  Glasgow,  after  his  election  as  Lord  Rector 
of  the  University,  the  great  Conservative  chieftain  seized  the 
opportunity  of  addressing  that  remarkable  assembly=^  in  these 
terms:  "  When  I  have  joined  in  the  public  worship  of  your 
Church,  think  you  that  I  have  adverted  to  distinctions  in 
point  of  form? — think  you  that  I  have  troubled  myself  with 
questions  of  Church  discipline  or  of  Church  government  ? 
No,  but  with  a  wish  as  hearty  and  cordial  as  you  can  enter- 
tain have  I  deprecated  the  arrival  of  that  day,  if  ever  it 
should  come,  when  men  in  authority  or  in  legislation  should 
be  ashamed  or  unwilling  to  support  the  National  Church  of 
Scotland — to  extend  its  ministration — to  advance  its  ban- 
ners into  the  desolate  and  unclaimed  wastes  of  religious  in- 
difference or  profligacy.  Gentlemen,  you  respond  to  that 
sentiment,  do  you  not?  (Long  and  continued  cheering.) 
Come,  then,  and  let  us  improve  this  occasion,  not  to  the  mere 
purposes  of  festivity ;  let  us  improve  it  to  public  advantage, 
and  let  us  see  whether  we  can  join  heart  and  hand  in  reso- 
lutions to  support  that  sentiment."      (Great  applause.)! 

In  striking  contrast  with  all  the  expressions  and  acts  of 
the  Conservatives  was  the  treatment  which  the  Church  Ex- 
tension cause  met  with  at  the  hands  of  the  Whig  ministry. 
That  ministry,  favorably  disposed  as  its  chief  members  were 
at  the  first  to  listen  to  Dr.  Chalmers's  moderate  demands, 
opened  its  ear  too  readily  to  the  representations  of  the  Scot- 
tish Dissenters.  When  reminded  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  1835, 
of  the  encouragement  which,  in  the  preceding  year,  he  had 
given  to  the  first  demand  for  an  endowment,  Lord  Melbourne 
said,  "  With  respect  to  the  general  and  very  guarded  ex- 
pressions which  were  used  by  myself  respecting  the  proposed 

*  Upward  of  3400  gentlemen  sat  down  at  the  table, 
t   See  "  Scottish  Guardian"  of  17th  January,  1837. 


JET.  56.       THE  COMMISSIONERS'  FIRST  REPORT.  31 

grant  to  the  Scottish  Church,  in  the  year  1834,  I  can  only- 
say  that  they  were  employed  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  real 
state  of  things.  You  yourself  admit  that  you  were  not  pre- 
pared to  expect  opposition  from  any  large  body  of  your  coun- 
trymen ;  and  I,  who  had  never  heard  any  thing  but  that 
the  Church  of  Scotland  was  the  most  exemplary  and  the 
most  satisfactory  to  the  people  of  any  Church  in  the  world, 
could  still  less  anticipate  the  burst  of  dissatisfaction  and  con- 
demnation which  broke  forth  so  suddenly  and  unexpectedly. 
Not  four  days  had  elapsed  from  the  time  of  the  employment 
of  the  expressions  to  which  you  allude  before  I  felt  the 
ground  to  tremble  under  me."^ 

This  trembling  mood  was  still  upon  the  Premier  when,  in 
July,  1835,  his  ministry  proposed  to  issue  a  Commission  of 
Inquiry  ;  and  Dr.  Chalmers  and  his  coadjutors  were  excusa- 
ble in  cherishing  some  alarm  lest,  under  that  Commission, 
the  entertainment  of  their  question  should  be  indefinitely 
postponed.  Lord  John  Russell  did  every  thing,  indeed,  to 
quiet  their  apprehensions.  At  their  suggestion  he  had  a 
clause  inserted  in  the  Commission,  that  the  Commissioners 
"  were  to  report  from  time  to  time,  in  order  that  such  reme- 
dies may  be  applied  to  any  existing  evil  as  Parliament  may 
think  fit ;"  and  in  moving  the  appointment  of  the  Commis- 
sion in  the  House  of  Commons,  his  lordship  said,  <*  It  may 
be  urged  as  an  objection  that  the  Commission  might  extend 
its  labors  to  an  inconvenient  length,  but  that  will  be  obviated 
by  arranging  that  they  shall  report  from  time  to  time,  that 
their  reports  shall  be  laid  before  Parliament,  and  that  as 
soon  as  Parliament  and  the  Government  shall  have  consid- 
ered them,  and  ascertained  that  a  remedy  is  required,  and 
settled  the  nature  of  that  remedy,  they  shall  proceed  at  once 
to  remedy  them."  While  cordially  concurring,  however,  in 
the  proposal  of  interim  reports.  Lord  John  Ilussell  had  no 
strong  conviction  of  their  necessity.      "  I  trust,"  he  said,  in 

*  Extracted  from  letter  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  dated  11th  September, 
1835. 


32  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836^. 

his  letter  of  instruction  to  the  Commissioners,  and  we  quote 
the  expression  to  show  how  sincerely  desirous  his  lordship 
was  to  avoid  all  needless  delay,  «'  I  trust  that  in  the  course 
of  six  months  the  greater  part  of  your  task  will  be  accom- 
plished." It  was  no  fault  of  the  Commissioners  that  this 
anticipation  was  falsified,  and  that  instead  of  completing 
their  whole  task  within  six  months,  it  was  a  year  and  a 
half  before  their  First  Report,  confined  exclusively  to  Edin- 
burgh, was  laid  upon  the  table  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Though  conducted  with  the  most  laudable  diligence,  and, 
one  single  instance  excepted, *"  with  exemplary  impartiality, 
the  inquiry  was  so  difficult  and  operose  as  necessarily  to  be 
tedious.  At  last,  however,  on  the  7th  of  February,  1837, 
their  First  Report  was  presented  to  the  House.  This  Re- 
port bore  that,  embracing  all  the  sittings  in  Established  and 
Dissenting  churches,  there  was  church  accommodation  pro- 
vided in  Edinburgh  for  about  48ith  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
population — that  in  the  Established  churches  there  were 
upward  of  9000,  and  in  the  Dissenting  upward  of  11,000 
sittings  unlet.  As  to  the  actual  attendance  upon  religious 
ordinances,  "it  wotild  appear,"  say  the  Commissioners,  "as 
was  indeed  universally  admitted  in  the  evidence,  that  there  is 
a  large  number  of  persons  capable  of  attending  who  habitually 
absent  themselves  from  public  worship.  This  number  can 
not  be  less  than  from  40,000  to  50,000,  according  to  the 
age  at  which  children  may  be  supposed  capable  of  attending 
church."  "  It  appears  to  us  as  the  result  of  the  whole 
evidence,  that  from  whatever  cause  it  proceeds,  whether 
connected  with  their  extent  or  nature,  the  opportunities  of 
public  religious  worship,  and  the  means  of  religious  instruc- 
tion and  pastoral  superintendence  at  present  existing  and  in 
operation,  are  not  adequate  to  the  removal  of  the  evil  com- 
plained of" 

Upon  the  presentation  of  this  Report  it  was  hoped  that 

*  The  permission  given  to  Dissenters  to  withhold  all  evidence  as  to 
debts  and  other  encumbrances  on  their  places  of  worship. 


iET.  56.     THE  COMMISSIONERS'  SECOND  REPORT.  33 

some  Government  action  would  ensue.  The  broad  and 
alarming  fact  that  nearly  one-third  of  the  whole  population 
of  the  Scottish  metropolis  were  living  in  the  entire  neglect 
of  religious  ordinances,  afforded,  it  was  imagined,  a  sufficient 
warrant  for  such  action.  When  questioned,  however,  in 
Parliament,  the  heads  of  the  Government  replied,  that  they 
thought  it  "  better  to  wait  until  they  had  the  other  Reports 
before  them,  before  any  further  steps  were  taken  on  the  sub- 
ject."* At  the  close  of  the  year,  the  Second  and  Third 
Reports  of  the  Commissioners  were  issued,  and  all  reason 
for  any  further  delay  was  removed.  The  Second  Report, 
referring  to  the  city  and  suburbs  of  Glasgow,  stated  that,  in 
all  the  churches,  there  were  sittings  provided  for  only  39^ 
per  cent,  of  the  population ;  while,  as  to  Church  attendance, 
the  result  is  stated  to  be,  ''that  a  very  large  number  of 
persons,  upward  of  66,000,  exclusive  of  children  under  ten 
years  of  age,  are  not  in  the  habit  of  attending  pubhc  wor- 
ship." The  materials  for  decision  being  now  all  before 
them,  the  determination  of  the  Government  was  looked  for 
with  profound  anxiety.  It  was  at  last  announced  that  the 
ministry  would  be  prepared  to  bring  in  a  bill,  the  leading 
provisions  of  which  were  ; — 1st,  That  the  bishops'  teinds 
should  be  applied  in  providing  for  the  religious  destitution 
existing  in  certain  Highland  and  other  rural  parishes,  having 
no  unexhausted  teinds ;  2d,  That  an  alteration  should  be 
made  in  the  Act  1707,  respecting  the  division  of  parishes  in 
Scotland,  so  as  to  afford  increased  facilities  for  the  applica- 
tion of  the  unexhausted  teinds  in  the  hands  of  private  pro- 
prietors, to  relieve  the  destitution  of  such  parishes  as  had 
unexhausted  teinds  belonging  to  them  ;  od.  That  nothing 
should  be  done  for  the  large  towns — that  no  grant  should  be 
made  from  any  source  to  provide  additional  means  of  relig- 
ious instruction  for  them.  Such  was  the  measure  which, 
after  four  years  of  negotiation  and  expectation,  was  offered 

*  Speech  of  Lord   John   Russell,   on  a  motion   brought  forward 
by  Sir  William  Rae,  5th  May,  1837. — Hansard,  vol.  xxxviii.  p.  617. 

B* 


34  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

to  the  acceptance  of  the  Church  Extensionists  of  Scotland. 
Its  first  provision,  if  carried  out,  would  have  yielded  but  a 
limited  revenue ;  its  second,  the  most  competent  author- 
ities in  Scotland  declared  it  would  be  illegal  to  execute  ; 
and  its  third  was  a  distinct  negative  upon  that  demand, 
which,  of  all  others,  Dr.  Chalmers  looked  upon  as  the  clearest 
and  most  clamant.  The  measure  met  so  little  favor,  that 
it  was  speedily  withdrawn,  and  all  hope  of  aid  from  the 
Whig  ministry  was  abandoned.^  In  that  ministry  there 
were  many  devoted  friends  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Of 
Lord  John  Russell  in  particular,  we  can  have  no  doubt 
that  had  he  been  at  perfect  hberty  to  act  upon  his  own  per- 
sonal convictions,  the  aid  which  that  Church  asked  would 
readily  have  been  granted.  But  the  Government  of  which 
he  was  a  member,  wanted  both  unity  and  strength.  It 
wanted  unity,  for  among  its  members  there  were  some  whose 
opinions  as  to  Church  Establishments,  and  whose  dispositions 
toward  the  evangelical  party  in  Scotland,  were  altogether  dif- 
ferent from  those  of  the  Home  Secretary.  It  wanted  strength, 
for,   slender  comparatively  as  was  their  political  influence, 

*  A  deputation  from  the  Church  Extension  Committee,  appointed 
to  confer  with  the  Government  as  to  any  measure  which  might  be 
proposed,  found  on  arrival  in  London,  that  on  this,  as  on  a  former 
occasion,  they  had  been  anticipated — that  the  Government  measure 
had  been  announced.  Placed  thus  in  a  critical  position,  they  were 
anxious  that  Dr.  Chalmers,  who  had  not  accompanied  them,  should 
join  them  in  London  ;  but  a  private  intimation,  conveyed  to  one  of 
their  number,  informed  them,  that,  affecting  to  regard  him  as  their 
political  enemy,  the  Government  would  rather  avoid  meeting  Dr. 
Chalmers.  Dr.  Muir  was  at  the  head  of  the  deputation  at  their  final 
interview  with  Lord  Melbourne.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting  it  was 
represented,  in  the  most  solemn  terms,  to  his  lordship,  that  in  what 
the  Government  proposed  to  do  they  were  abandoning  the  principle 
of  an  Establishment  so  far  as  great  cities  were  concerned,  and  that 
they  would  inflict  a  cruel  and  deep  wound  on  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
"That,  gentlemen."  said  the  Premier,  in  the  easiest  tone  of  good- 
natured  nonchalance^  "  that  is  your  inference.  You  may  not  be  the 
better  for  our  plan,  but — hang  it — you  can  not  surely  be  worse." 
And  so  ended  the  colloquy. 


iET.  56.  LETTER  TO  MR.  CAMPBELL  OF  MONZIE.      35 

the  voluntaries  of  Scotland  might  at  this  time  have  turn- 
ed the  scale.  The  majority  of  300,  which  the  Whig  minis- 
try possessed  in  1831,  had  in  1837  dwindled  down  to  26. 
With  a  majority  so  reduced,  and  which  every  year  was 
diminishing,  it  was  evident  that  the  days  of  the  Whig  Gov- 
ernment were  numbered.  Amid  the  struggle  which  preceded 
its  dissolution,  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  drawn  into  the 
strife.  In  the  treatment  given  to  her,  a  weapon  was  fur- 
nished to  the  Conservatives  too  effective  to  lie  unused  ;  and, 
however  desirous  Dr.  Chalmers  and  other  ecclesiastical  lead- 
ers might  be  to  avoid  every  thing  which  could  give  a  politi- 
cal aspect  to  any  of  their  ecclesiastical  movements,  it  was 
not  possible  for  them,  either  as  citizens  or  Churchmen,  to 
stand  neutral  between  two  parties — one  of  which  declared 
itself  to  be  so  friendly,  the  other  of  which  proved  itself  to  be 
so  indifferent,  to  the  Church's  most  reasonable  demands.  In 
the  general  pohtics  of  the  period,  Dr.  Chalmers  took  no 
public  part.  There  was  one  question,  however,  and  that 
perhaps  the  leading  one  of  the  day,  in  which  his  interest 
was  too  lively  not  to  find  some  vent.  Having  been  asked 
by  Mr.  Campbell  of  Monzie  to  communicate  to  him  in 
writing  his  opinion  upon  this  topic,  he  did  it  in  the  follow- 
ing letter  : 


"  BUKNTISLAND,  July  22(?,  1836. 

"Dear  Sir — On  the  subject  of  our  recent  conversation,  I 
would  beg  leave  to  add  that  I  have  always  regarded  the 
appropriation  of  any  part  of  the  revenues  of  the  Irish  Church 
to  other  than  strictly  ecclesiastical  objects,  as  a  very  gross 
violation  of  the  principle  of  a  religious  establishment  And 
I  farther  think,  that  the  actual  appropriation  carried  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  militates  in  the  strongest  manner  against 
all  the  principles  of  Protestantism.  I  have  ever  reprobated 
the  grant  to  Maynooth  College  ;  and  {a  fortiori)  I  must 
deplore,  should  it  ever  be  the  adopted  policy  of  our  Govern- 
ment, the  alienation,  in  however  small  a  proportion,  of  the 


36  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

endowments  of  the  Protestant  hierarchy  of  Ireland,  to  the 
support  of  any  Popish  seminary  whatever  ;  and  more  espe- 
cially to  the  support  of  schools  which  will  only  admit  the 
Scriptures  in  a  changed  or  mutilated  form  into  their  course 
of  education.  The  question,  my  dear  Sir,  is  altogether  a 
vital  one,  insomuch  that  if  any,  whether  in  or  out  of  Parlia- 
ment shall  support  the  appropriation  clause,  I  doubt  whether 
they  have  a  sincere,  and  most  certainly  they  have  not  an  en- 
lightened attachment  to  the  interests  of  the  Protestant  faith. 
Ever  believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  most  truly, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers, 
"Alexander  Campbell,  Esq.,  of  Monzie.  ' 

"  P.S. — If  the  Government  shall  carry  into  effect  their 
proposed  act  of  violence  against  the  Episcopal  Protestant 
Establishment  of  Ireland,  I  should  certainly  feel  that  the 
Presbyterian  Establishment  of  Scotland  is  not  safe  in  their 
hands." 

This  letter  was  avowedly  asked  and  used  to  serve  an 
electioneering  purpose.  Mr.  Campbell's  opponent  had  pre- 
viously, with  a  like  object,  made  a  like  request  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, whose  only  part  in  the  matter  was  that  when  asked 
for  his  opinion  he  frankly  stated  it.  It  so  happened,  how- 
ever, that  the  letter  above  quoted  told  against  the  liberal 
interest  in  the  canvass,  and  a  violent  outcry  was  raised 
against  the  writer  for  improper  and  unelerical  interference 
in  political  affairs.*  It  was  one  of  the  few  instances  in 
which  Dr.  Chalmers  offered  any  public  defense  of  his  con- 
duct. From  a  communication  addressed  by  him  to  the 
•«  Edinburgh  Courant,"  we  extract  a  single  paragraph. 

*  "  We  pronounce  such  conduct  of  the  reverend  doctor  to  be  out- 
rageously disgraceful." — Caledonian  Mercury,  August  15.  "Any 
thing  more  characteristic  of  an  officious,  vain,  self-conceited,  factious, 
meddling  spirit,  has  rarely  appeared  in  the  annals  of  party  contests." — 
Scotsman,  August  17' 

\ 


iET.  56.   HIS  OWN  DEFENSE  OF  HIS  CONDUCT.       37 

"Burntisland,  23d  August,  1836. 
"It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  sort  of  family  likeness 
which  obtains  among  the  numerous  disciples  of  the  mock 
patriotism  of  our  day,  who  all  profess  to  worship  at  the 
shrine  of  liberty,  yet  with  whom  it  is  a  mortal  offense  that 
one  should  dare  to  have  an  opinion  of  his  own,  if  it  thwart 
any  object  of  theirs,  and  an  offense  still  more  unpardonable 
that  he  should  dare  to  give  it  utterance.  The  'London 
Courier'  has  been  pleased  to  denominate  the  part  I  have 
taken  as  an  extraordinary  interference  with  the  politics  of 
Argyleshire  ;  and  it  is  not  many  weeks  ago  since  a  vacant 
professorship,  that  had  been  previously  much  canvassed  for, 
was  disposed  of  by  the  magistrates  and  council  of  Edinburgh. 
In  common  with  others  I  happened  to  be  consulted  on  the 
occasion,  and  wrote  one  or  two  letters  to  my  own  special 
acquaintances ;  I  M^as  called  on  to  write  several  more, 
either  in  compliance  with  the  wishes,  or  in  return  to  the 
communications  which  I  received  from  the  various  mem- 
bers of  that  honorable  body.  On  the  day  of  election,  when 
ray  opinion  happened  to  be  quoted  at  the  city  board,  the 
effusion  of  a  Councilor  R.,  as  reported  in  the  public  prints, 
was,  that  *  we  have  had  enough  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  inter- 
ference.' I  would  have  been  spared  this  piece  of  coarse 
impertinence  had  I  chosen  to  be  so  ungentlemanly  or  un- 
civil to  Bailie  Macfarlan  and  others,  as  to  take  no  notice 
of  their  communications.  Nevertheless  I  shall  continue  to 
act  as  heretofore  ;  and  neither  the  insolence  of  an  unman- 
nerly town-councilor,  nor  the  ferocity  and  falsehood  of  all 
the  liberal  newspapers,  shall  deter  me  from  the  privilege 
and  the  duty  of  a  freeborn  citizen,  which,  in  its  very  hum- 
blest form,  is  to  speak  when  he  is  spoken  to,  and  write 
when  he  is  written  to.  Thomas  Chalmers." 

The  Argyleshire  canvass  gave  token  of  the  extent  to 
which  ecclesiastical  questions  were  affecting  the  politics  of  the 
period,  and  would  tell  upon  the  results  of  a  general  election. 


38  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

That  event,  to  which  both  parties  looked  forward  so  earn- 
estly, was  now  at  hand.  The  king  died  on  the  20th  June, 
1837,  and  the  country  was  plunged  into  the  turmoil  of  a 
great  political  strife.  Before  alluding,  however,  to  these 
elections,  let  us  offer  to  our  readers  a  glimpse  of  our  present 
beloved  Sovereign  in  the  first  days  of  her  elevation  to  the 
throne.  Soon  after  her  accession  Dr.  Chalmers  accompa- 
nied to  London  two  deputations,  one  from  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  the  other  from  the  Church  of  Scotland.  For 
his  Journal  letters,  with  all  their  minute  details  of  a  fort- 
night's residence  in  the  metropolis,  we  can  not  now  find 
place.  One  extract,  however,  we  can  not  forbear  presenting. 
''London,  July  19th,  1837. — I  ordered  my  glass  coach 
to  come  to  me  at  half-past  eleven,  in  which  I  was  to  take 
up  the  other  heads  of  the  deputation.  It  came  not  till 
twelve,  and  subjected  me  for  half  an  hour  to  a  misery  with 
which  I  have  long  been  familiar  ;   went  in  it,  first,  to  the 

last  but  one  house  in  Craven-street,  Strand,  where  C 

told  me  B lodged,  but  when  I  got  there  no  such  name 

was  ever  heard  of,  so  I  just  put  it  down  to  the  misfortune 
of  having  been  born  in  such  a  world  of  non-accurates,  or 
such  a  world  of  non-punctuals,  as  we  have  been  destined 
to  occupy  ;  thence  I  went  to  5  Maddox-street,  where  I 
took  up  Sir  George  Ballingall,  quite  a  kindred  spirit  in  the 
glorious  virtue  of  punctuality  ;  thence  to  the  Thatched- 
House  Tavern,  near  the  gate  of  St.  James's  Palace,  where 
our  deputation  assembled,  and  about  fifty  cast  up,  chiefly 
medical  graduates  of  our  college  ;  thence  in  a  bare-headed 
procession  to  St.  James's,  I  at  the  head  of  the  rank  and  file, 
and  a  very  respectable  and  numerously  jointed  tail  of  attend- 
ants behind  me  ;  a  most  picturesque  range  of  particolored 
soldiers,  beef-eaters,  and  attendants  of  various  sorts  along  the 
lobbies  and  staircase  which  lead  to  the  levee-rooms  of  the 
palace  ;  got  first  to  the  outer  of  these  rooms,  which  soon 
filled  almost  to  suffocation.  Instead  of  a  promenade  which 
I  used  to  have,  this  being  the  first  of  all  Queen  Victoria's 


JET.  56.  FIRST  LEVEE  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA.  39 

levees,  was  crowded  beyond  all  example.  We  had  sad 
squeezing  to  get  into  the  second  room,  and  thence  to  the 
third,  or  chamber  of  presence  ;  got  my  first  view  of  the 
Queen  on  entering  the  third  or  last  room ;  a  most  inter- 
esting girlish  sensibility  to  the  realities  of  her  situation, 
with  sufficient  self-command,  but  withal  simple,  timid,  trem- 
ulous, and  agitated,  that  rendered  her  to  me  far  more  in- 
teresting, and  awoke  a  more  feeling  and  fervent  loyalty  in 
my  heart  than  could  have  been  done  by  any  other  exhibi- 
tion. Having  kissed  her  hand  and  passed,  and  forgetting 
to  give  her  my  University  address,  wrapped  up  in  a  roll, 
I  was  proceeding  along  with  it  in  my  hand,  when  I  was 
checked  by  one  of  the  lords  in  waiting,  and  instantly  put  it 
into  the  hands  of  Her  Majesty. 

"  I  forgot  to  mention  that  in  the  outermost  room  (where 
we  stood  in  a  squeeze  and  half  suffocated  for  nearly  an  hour) 
there  was  one  head,  just  two  heads  away  from  me,  that  of 

J H .      Whether  he  recognized  me  or  not  I  will 

not  say,  but  I  was  resolved  in  his  case  not  to  speak  until  I 
was  spoken  to,  and  as  that  did  not  take  place  we  main- 
tained our  reciprocal  silence,  though  our  noses  were  often 
not  half  a  foot  from  each  other.  When  I  looked  at  his 
hard  utilitarian  face,  which,  by  the  way,  was  the  general 
aspect  and  physiognomy  of  the  people  around  me,  I  felt  the 
atmosphere  most  uncongenial  to  all  that  is  chivalrous  oi 
sentimental  in  loyalty.  Nor  do  I  believe  that  half  a  dozen 
there  were  moved  as  I  was  at  the  sight  of  our  truly  inter- 
esting Queen,  incapable  as  they  seemed  to  me  of  all  sympa- 
thy with  Burke,  when  he  appealed  to  the  days  of  the  Grand 
Monarque,  and  spoke  of  the  thousand  swords  that  would 
have  leaped  from  their  scabbards  in  defense  of  the  Queen 
of  France." 

The  autumn  of  1837  was  occupied  with  the  elections, 
and  when  the  results  were  known.  Dr.  Chalmers  took  the 
liberty  of  writing  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  whose  advent  to  power 
seemed  not  far  ofT. 


40  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

"  Edinbxtrgh,  December  1st,  1837. 

"  Dear  Sir  Robert — I  must  not  press  on  your  much  oc- 
cupied time  ;  and  indeed  I  have  only  one  sentence  to  write, 
on  the  subject  of  Church  Extension. 

**  We  have  lost  our  great  friend  in  the  present  Parliament 
— Sir  George  Clerk.  But  we  have  gained  two,  Mr.  Col- 
quhoun  and  Lord  Pv-amsay — the  former  thoroughly  conver- 
sant with  the  question,  both  in  its  principle  and  minutest 
details,  the  latter  full  of  attachment  to  the  cause  and  zeal  in 
its  favor,  and  who  will  soon,  I  trust,  become  as  intelligent 
about  it  as  Mr.  Colquhoun,  who  in  every  thing  connected 
with  the  ecclesiastical  or  educational  state  of  Scotland  has 
as  sound  and  enlightened  views  as  any  one  I  know,  whether 
in  or  out  of  Parliament. 

"I  can  not  close  this  brief  note  without  expressing  the 
deep  interest  I  have  felt  in  your  personal  happiness  and  well- 
being  from  the  time  I  had  the  privilege  of  spending  two  days 
with  you  at  Carstairs,=^  and  how  much  this  sentiment  was 
enhanced  by  the  newspaper  reports  of  your  health.  May 
you  experience  through  life  the  guardianship  of  a  kind  Prov- 
idence ;  and,  above  all,  may  you  plentifully  share  the  richer 
and  higher  blessings  of  Divine  grace,  so  as  to  pass  unhurt 
amid  all  the  troubles  and  temptations  to  which  all  on  the 
high  arena  of  public  life  are  exposed,  where  the  maxims  of 
an  irreligious  world  come  so  frequently,  often  so  fatally,  into 
collision  with  the  principles  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. — 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  dear  Sir  Robert,  yours,  with  the  most 
grateful  and  devoted  regard,  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"The  Right  Honorable 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  B arouet,  M.  P." 

"  Drayton  Manor,  Fazeley,  December  2lst,  1837. 
"  My  Dear  Dr.  Chalmers — I  arrived  here   last   night 
from  London,  and  I  avail  myself  of  the  first  moment  of  com- 

^  The  seat  of  Henry  Monteith,  Esq.,  where  Sir  Robert  Peel  staid 
a  few  days  on  his  way  to  be  installed  as  Lord  Rector  of  the  University 
of  Glasgow, 


JET.  56.  HOME  OPERATIONS.  41 

parative  repose,  to  thank  you  sincerely  for  the  note  which 
you  wrote  to  me  some  time  since.  It  should  not  have  re- 
mained so  long  unacknowledged  had  it  not  been  for  the  inces- 
sant occupation  of  my  time — frequently  thirteen  or  fourteen 
continuous  hours  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

'*  I  share  sincerely  in  your  satisfaction  at  the  return  to 
Parliament  of  Mr.  Colquhoun,  and  am  confident  that  he  will 
be  of  the  greatest  service  to  the  interests  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  to  the  great  cause  of  pure  religious  instruction. 

"  I  have  had  two  or  three  interviews  with  him  during  the 
present  meeting. 

"  The  kind  and  flattering  manner  in  which  you  express 
yourself  toward  me,  and  the  assurances  of  personal  esteem 
which  your  note  conveys,  are  truly  gratifying  to  me. 

"  I  had  learned  to  honor  and  respect  you  long  before  I  had 
the  opportunity  of  making  your  acquaintance,  and  I  can  truly 
say  that  I  should  be  raised  higher  in  my  own  esteem  could 
I  think  myself  really  entitled  to  the  friendship  and  warm 
attachment  of  so  good  a  man. 

"  The  constant  occupations  of  men  in  public  life,  the  vehe- 
ment excitement  of  party  contentions,  and  the  feelings  and 
passions  to  which  they  give  rise,  have  indeed  too  great  a  ten- 
dency to  withdraw  their  minds  from  the  contemplation  of 
matters  of  much  deeper  obligation  and  much  more  lasting 
interest.  They  have  not,  however,  deadened  in  my  mind 
those  solemn  feelings  which  are  naturally  awakened  by  your 
affecting  remembrance  of  me  in  your  prayers,  and  recom- 
mendation of  me  to  the  guardianship  and  the  mercy  of  a  kind 
Providence. — Believe  me,  my  deer  Sir,  most  faithfully  yours, 

"Robert  Peel. 

"  The  Uev.  Dr.  Chalmers." 

Through  all  the  political  discouragements  of  the  years 
1835,  36,  37,  the  great  home  objects  of  the  Church  Exten- 
sion Scheme  were  prosecuted  with  unflagging  devotion  ;  with 
the  influential  clergy  and  laity  of  Scotland  a  most  voluminous 


42  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1836. 

correspondence  was  carried  on,  and  the  press  gave  forth  many 
a  circular.  To  the  earlier  agency  a  new  instrument  was 
added.  Dr.  Chalmers  had  been  much  struck  by  the  effect 
of  a  tour  made  by  Dr.  Duff,  in  1835,  through  the  towns 
and  parishes  of  Scotland,  which  had  awakened  the  Church 
and  country  to  much  greater  missionary  zeal,  and  had  drawn 
forth  an  enlarged  liberality.  From  this  as  well  as  from  the 
effects  of  political  meetings  held  widely  over  the  country,  he 
became  convinced  that  for  many  purposes  the  platform  was 
more  effective  than  the  press — that  the  living  voice  had  a 
power  which  the  dead  letter  never  can  exert.  This  power 
he  resolved  to  employ  on  behalf  of  his  favorite  scheme  ;  and 
having  in  1836  obtained  the  General  Assembly's  sanction,  a 
Sub-committee  on  Church  Extension  was  formed  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  organizing  a  system  of  meetings  to  be  held 
extensively  over  the  country,  at  which  well-instructed  depu- 
ties were  to  appear  and  plead  this  cause  in  the  most  popular 
and  effective  manner.  The  issue  was  most  encouraging.  As 
the  ear  of  the  Government  seemed  to  close,  the  ear  of  the 
country  seemed  to  open  ;  and,  under  the  strong  conviction 
that  it  was  by  the  country  that  the  Government  was  finally 
to  be  carried,  the  success  in  Scotland  appeared  to  Dr.  Chal- 
mers more  than  a  counterbalance  to  the  repulses  of  the  me- 
tropolis. That  success  was  truly  wonderful.  In  May,  1838, 
as  the  fruit  of  four  years'  labor,  Dr.  Chalmers  announced  to 
the  General  Assembly,  that  nearly  two  hundred  churches 
had  been  added  to  the  Establishment,  for  the  erection  of 
which  upward  of  two  hundred  thousand  pounds  had  been 
contributed.  Well  might  the  prosecutor  of  this  great  enter- 
prise say,  as  he  announced  these  results,  "  What  other  single 
scheme  of  Christian  benevolence  in  this  country  ever  com- 
manded so  noble  an  income  as  £50,000  per  annum  I  Had 
the  operations  of  the  Committee  not  harmonized  with  the 
sentiments  of  the  country,  they  never  could  have  commanded 
an  amount  and  continuance  of  pecuniary  support  altogether 
without  a  precedent  in  the  history  of  Christian  beneficence 


^T.  56.  THE  ERA  OF  CHURCH  EXTENSION.  43 

in  this  part  of  the  British  empire.  Nor  is  there  any  pre- 
monitory symptom  yet  of  decHning  fervor  in  this  cause  among 
the  people  of  Scotland.  The  work  is  still  far  from  its  term- 
ination. It  has  only,  so  to  speak,  begun.  The  cases  of  most 
helpless  and  affecting  destitution  still  remain  to  be  overtaken. 
There  are  wastes  of  poverty,  irreligion,  and  crime,  which 
have  still  to  be  redeemed,  and  which  nothing  but  the  aggres- 
sive operation  of  a  territorial  establishment,  wisely,  and  stren- 
uously, and  perseveringly  conducted,  is  adequate  to  subdue  ; 
and  until  every  such  moral  wilderness  is  explored  and  re- 
claimed, and  the  whole  country  present  the  aspect  of  a  field 
which  the  Lord  hath  blessed,  and  is  causing  to  bring  forth 
the  fruits  of  righteousness,  the  Committee  may  not  rest  from 
their  labors,  nor  the  people  from  their  hearty  and  zealous 
co-operation.  At  the  glorious  era  of  the  Church's  Reform- 
ation, it  was  the  unwearied  support  of  the  people  which,  un- 
der God,  finally  brought  her  efibrts  to  a  triumphant  issue  ; 
in  this  era  of  her  Extension — an  era  as  broadly  marked,  and 
as  emphatically  presented  to  the  notice  of  the  ecclesiastical 
historian,  as  any  which  the  Church  is  wont  to  consider  as 
instances  of  signal  revival  and  divine  interposition — the  sup- 
port of  the  people  will  not  be  wanting ;  but  by  their  devoted 
exertions,  and  willing  sacrifices,  and  ardent  prayers,  they  will 
yet  testify  how  much  they  love  the  house  where  their  fathers 
worshiped — how  much  they  reverence  their  Saviour's  com- 
mand, that  the  very  poorest  of  their  brethren  shall  have  the 
gospel  preached  to  them." 


CHAPTER  III. 

DELIVERY  OF  A  COURSE  OF  LECTURES  IN  LONDON  IN 
DEFENSE  OF  RELIGIOUS  ESTABLISHMENTS. 

"  The  Church  as  it  now  stands,  no  human  power  can 
save."  So  wrote  Dr.  Arnold  in  1832  ;  and  it  was  under 
the  abiding  conviction  that  the  English  Establishment  was 
in  extreme  danger  that  he  issued,  in  the  following  year,  a 
pamphlet,  of  which,  in  writing  to  a  friend,  he  says,  "  I  am 
sorry  that  you  do  not  like  the  pamphlet.  I  will  not  answer 
for  its  practicability  :  when  the  patient  is  at  the  last  gasp 
the  dose  may  come  too  late,  but  still  it  is  his  only  chance  ; 
he  may  die  of  the  doctor  ;  he  must  die  of  the  disease."  For 
some  years  after  the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill,  a  general 
and  not  groundless  alarm  prevailed  as  to  the  fate  of  the  En- 
glish Establishment.  That  Bill  had  put  a  new  power  into 
the  hands  of  the  Dissenters.  That  this  power  would  be 
used  against  the  Church  was  evident ;  how  far  it  might 
prevail  was  as  yet  unknown.  It  was  novel  and  ominous 
that,  in  the  frequent  Parliamentary  discussions  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal questions,  the  ground  and  principle  of  all  religious  estab- 
lishments, boldly  challenged  on  the  one  hand,  was  frequently 
misstated,  or  but  feebly  defended,  on  the  other.  Under  a 
pressure — the  exact  force  had  not  yet  been  measured — the 
Government  itself  seemed  ready  to  give  way.  "  Viscount 
Melbourne,"  says  Sydney  Smith,  "  declared  himself  quite 
satisfied  with  the  Church  as  it  was,  but  if  the  public  had 
any  desire  to  alter  it,  they  might  do  as  they  pleased."  And 
if  the  House  of  Commons  represented  the  public  mind,  the 
desire  to  alter  was  strong  and  urgent.  •'  The  real  question," 
said  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  1838,  "which  now  divides 
the  country,  and  which  truly  divides  the  House  of  Commons, 


^T.  58.  THE  CHURCH  IN  DANGER.  45 

is  Church  or  no  Church.  People  talk  of  the  war  in  Spain 
and  the  Canada  question,  but  all  that  is  of  little  moment. 
The  real  question  is  Church  or  no  Church  ;  and  the  majority 
of  the  House  of  Commons — a  small  majority  it  is  true,  but 
still  a  majority — are  practically  against  it."  The  Duke 
may  have  to  some  extent  misinterpreted  the  aim  and  inten- 
tion of  this  majority,  but  its  acts,  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Government,  were  sufficiently  alarming.  Commissions  of 
Inquiry  into  the  state  both  of  the  English  and  Irish  Estab- 
lishments were  issued  ;  and  beginning  with  the  weakest  in- 
stitute, not  only  was  the  number  of  its  bishops  reduced,  but 
it  was  proposed  to  abridge  the  Irish  Church  to  such  extent 
as  to  leave  a  large  surplus  revenue,  which  revenue  was  to  be 
appropriated  to  other  than  ecclesiastical  objects. 

It  was  this  appropriation  clause  appended  to  the  Irish 
Tithe  Bill  which  roused  the  friends  of  the  Episcopal  Estab- 
lishments to  a  vigorous  defense.  But  the  methods  of  defense 
were  various.  One  party,  composed  almost  exclusively  of 
clergymen  and  collegians,  boldly  met  the  prevailing  current 
by  denying  the  right  and  authority  of  the  Crown  to  meddle 
in  any  way  either  with  the  interior  discipline  or  the  external 
framework  of  the  Church.  That  Church  (and  they  spoke 
of  the  Episcopacy  of  England)  had  claims  upon  the  coun- 
try's reverence  separate  from  and  far  higher  than  any  which 
her  mere  civil  institution  conferred.  Her  ministry  carrying 
in  its  hands  a  power  derived  from  the  apostles — her  sacra- 
ments administered  by  those  upon  whom  exclusively  the  gifts 
needful  for  the  holy  office  had  been  bestowed  by  the  Holy 
Ghost — she  opened  up  the  only  channel  of  grace — she  offered 
the  only  secure  spiritual  asylum.  It  was  as  such  that  she 
had  been  of  old  acknowledged  and  honored  by  the  State — it 
was  as  such  that  she  expected  the  State's  countenance  to  be 
continued.  Another  party,  composed  principally  of  laymen, 
were  disposed  to  occupy  a  lower  line  of  defense.  Devotedly 
attached  to  the  Church  of  England,  ready  to  do  battle  in  her 
favor,  and  to  guard  her  against  all  violence  from  without, 


46  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

they  were  yet  not  insensible  to  certain  defects  in  that  Church 
—defects  partly  in  her  constitution,  owing  to  the  peculiar 
circumstances  in  which  that  constitution  was  formed — partly 
in  her  administration,  owing  to  those  corrupt  influences  to 
which  every  Church  lies  exposed.  These  defects,  limiting 
her  powers  and  opportunities  of  usefulness,  it  should  be 
their  first  effort  to  remove,  so  that  while  lifting  above  her 
the  shield  of  protection,  they  might  leave  her  less  exposed  to 
the  hostile  shaft.  Among  other  means  directed  to  this  end 
a  small  society  was  instituted  in  London,  entitled  the  Chris- 
tian Influence  Society.  Early  in  1837,  its  enlightened  and 
zealous  secretary,  A.  Gordon,  Esq.,  wrote  to  Dr.  Chalmers, 
requesting  him  to  open  a  course  of  lectures,  which  it  was 
proposed  to  institute  in  the  metropolis,  the  audience  to  be 
limited,  and  as  select  and  influential  as  could  be  secured, 
and  the  lectures  to  be  published  immediately  after  their  de- 
livery. In  the  controversy  about  Establishments,  which  had 
so  long  and  so  greatly  agitated  Scotland,  Dr.  Chalmers  had 
hitherto  taken  part  only  when  that  controversy  connected 
itself  with  the  Church  Extension  movement.  A  very  fa- 
vorable opportunity  was  now  offered  him  of  unfolding  in  a 
didactic  rather  than  in  a  controversial  form  the  true  theory 
of  a  rehgious  estabhshment,  and  demonstrating  its  peculiar 
efficacy  as  the  only  instrument  capable  of  diffusing  univers- 
ally over  a  whole  country  the  lessons  of  Christianity.  Nor 
was  it  without  its  influence  that  by  these  lectures  being  de- 
livered in  London  the  public  mind  of  England  might  to  some 
extent  be  inoculated  and  impressed  with  his  peculiar  views. 
He  consented,  therefore,  to  undertake  the  task  to  which  Mr. 
Gordon  had  invited  him,  but  he  postponed  the  execution  of 
it  till  the  spring  of  1838.  Upon  their  preparation  he  be- 
stowed unusual  pains — pains  amply  rewarded  by  the  manner 
of  their  public  reception.  The  first  of  these  lectures  was 
delivered  in  the  Hanover-square  Pvooms,  on  Wednesday  the 
25th  April.  It  was  literally  a  picked  audience,  as  none 
were  admitted  but  those  to  whom  tickets  had  been  sent  by 


^T.  58.  LECTURES  ON  ESTABLISHMENTS.  ^ 

the  Society,  and  seldom  on  any  similar  topic  has  a  minister 
of  religion  been  privileged  to  address  a  similar  assembly. 
One  of  the  royal  family  honored  the  occasion  by  his  presence. 
*«  I  was  waiting,"  says  Dr.  Chalmers,  "with  others  in  a  com- 
mittee-room, when  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  entered  and  in- 
quired for  me.  I  was  accordingly  introduced,  and  exchanged 
a  few  sentences  with  him.  He  has  very  much  the  manner 
and  appearance  of  his  father,  George  III.,  who  used  to  say 
of  him  that  he  was  the  only  son  of  his  who  had  not  cost  him 
a  sigh.  I  had  been  told  that  he  was  a  very  great  fidget, 
and  that  he  would  not  sit  still  for  a  moment  during  the  lec- 
ture ;  but  it  was  strikingly  the  reverse.  He  and  his  equery, 
Colonel  Jones,  who  were  accommodated  with  a  sofa  directly 
before  me,  were  among  the  most  attentive,  and  to  all  appear- 
ance inteUigent  listeners,  of  the  very  high  audience,  all  of 
whom  seemed  to  sympathize  with  me  to  the  uttermost." 
Speaking  of  this  opening  lecture,  the  leading  journal  of  the 
day  said,  "■  If  the  interior  of  the  structure  correspond  in  any 
degree  with  the  simple  and  massive  grandeur  of  the  porch, 
these  lectures  will  doubtless  challenge  the  admiration  of  after 
ages,  scarcely  more  as  an  imperishable  monument  of  the 
doctor's  genius  than  as  an  invaluble  contribution  to  the  per- 
manent literature,  and,  above  all,  to  the  higher  interests  of 
the  country.  From  the  first  word  that  escaped  the  lips  of 
the  lecturer  till  the  concluding  sentence,  which  died  away 
amid  the  acclamations  of  the  audience,  the  vivid  interest 
was  sustained  with  a  deep  and  unflagging  intensity."  At 
the  second  lecture,  the  seats  reserved  for  peers  and  members 
of  Parliament  were  at  an  early  hour  crowded  to  overflow, 
a,nd  so  difficult  was  it  to  pack  the  room  aright,  that  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  the  time  fixed  for  opening, 
the  lecturer  could  not  proceed.  The  third  lecture  witnessed 
a  still  denser  crowd,  composed  of  a  still  higher  grade,  and 
manifesting  a  still  higher  enthusiasm.  At  the  fourth  and 
fifth  lectures  an  American  clergyman  was  present,  who  tells 
us,  "  the  hour  at  which  the  lecture  was  to  commence  was 


18  MExMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS,  1838. 

two  o'clock.  I  thought  it  necessary  to  be  beforehand  in 
order  to  secure  a  seat.  When  I  arrived  I  found  the  hall  so 
perfectly  crammed  that  at  first  it  seemed  impossible  to  gain 
admission,  but  by  dint  of  perseverance  I  pushed  my  way  on- 
ward through  the  dense  crowd  till  I  had  reached  nearly  the 
centre  of  the  hall.  Though  the  crowd  was  so  great,  it  was 
very  obvious  that  the  assembly  was  made  up  principally  of 
persons  iifUhe  higher  walks  of  life.  Dukes,  marquises,  earls, 
viscounts,  barons,  baronets,  bishops,  and  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, were  to  be  seen  in  every  direction.  After  some  con- 
siderable delay  and  impatient  waiting,  the  great  charmer 
made  his  entrance,  and  was  welcomed  with  clappings  and 
shouts  of  applause,  that  grew  more  and  more  intense  till  the 
noise  became  almost  deafening."  =^  The  concluding  lecture 
was  graced  by  the  presence  of  nine  prelates  of  the  Church 
of  England.  The  tide  that  had  been  rising  and  swelling 
each  succeeding  day  now  burst  all  bounds.  Carried  away 
by  the  impassioned  utterance  of  the  speaker,  long  ere  the 
close  of  some  of  his  finest  passages  was  reached,  the  voice 
of  the  lecturer  was  drowned  in  the  applause,  the  audience 
rising  from  their  seats,  waving  their  hats  above  their  heads, 
and  breaking  out  into  tumultuous  approbation.  Nor  was 
the  interest  confined  to  the  lecture-room.  "  Nothing,"  says 
Dr.  Begg,t  "  could  exceed  the  enthusiasm  which  prevailed 
in  London.  The  great  city  seemed  stirred  to  its  very  depths. 
The  doctor  sat  when  delivering  his  lectures  behind  a  small 
table  ;  the  hall  in  front  being  densely  crowded  with  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  audiences  that  ever  assembled  in  Britain. 
It  was  supposed  that  at  least  five  hundred  of  those  present 
were  Peers  and  members  of  the  House  of  Commons.      Sir 

*  ^'  Glimpses  of  the  Old  World,"  by  the  late  Rev.  J.  A.  Clark,  D.D. 
Vol.  ii.  p.  96,  97.     London,  1847. 

t  Dr.  Begg,  along  with  other  members  of  the  Church  Extension 
Committee,  accompanied  Dr.  Chalmers,  and  availing  themselves  of  so 
favorable  an  opportunity,  succeeded  in  obtaining  about  £5000  in  the 
metropolis. 


JET.  58.      RAPID  PUBLICATION  OF  THE  LECTURES.  49 

James  Graham  was  a  very  constant  attender.  The  sitting 
attitude  of  Dr.  Chalmers  seemed  at  first  irreconcilable  with 
much  energy  or  effect.  But  such  an  anticipation  was  at 
once  dispelled  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  speaker,  responded 
to,  if  possible,  by  the  still  more  intense  enthusiasm  of  the 
audience  ;  and,  occasionally,  the  effect  was  even  greatly  in- 
creased, by  the  eloquent  man  springing  unconsciously  to  his 
feet,  and  delivering  with  overwhelming  power  the  more 
magnificent  passages,  a  movement  which,  on  one  occasion 
at  least,  was  imitated  by  the  entire  audience,  when  the 
words  '  the  king  can  not — the  king  dare  not,'  were  uttered 
in  accents  of  prophetic  vehemence,  that  must  still  ring  in 
the  ears  of  all  who  heard  them,  and  were  responded  to  by  a 
whirlwind  of  enthusiasm,  which  was  probably  never  exceeded 
in  the  history  of  eloquence.  Some  of  us  sat  on  the  platform 
beside  the  Doctor,  and  near  us  were  the  reporters.  One 
seemed  to  leave  the  room  every  five  minutes  with  what  he 
had  written,  so  that  by  the  time  the  lecture  was  finished,  it 
was  nearly  all  in  print.  On  the  day  of  the  first  lecture, 
which  commenced  at  two  o'clock,  and  terminated  about 
half-past  three,  some  of  us  went  round  by  the  city,  and 
when  we  reached  our  dinner  table  at  five  o'clock,  we  were 
able  to  present  to  Dr.  Chalmers  a  newspaper,  I  think  the 
'  Sun'  or  '  Globe,'  containing  a  full  report  of  his  lecture. 
Nothing  was  more  striking,  however,  amidst  all  this  excite- 
ment, than  the  child-like  humility  of  the  great  man  himself. 
AH  the  flattery  seemed  to  produce  no  effect  whatever  on 
him  ;  his  mind  was  entirely  absorbed  in  his  great  object : 
and  the  same  kind,  playful,  and  truly  Christian  spirit,  that 
so  endeared  him  to  us  all,  was  every  where  apparent  in  his 
conduct.  I  had  the  honor  afterward  to  be  introduced  to  the 
Duke  of  Cambridge.  He  immediately  introduced  the  subject 
of  Dr.  Chalmers;  '  What  does  he  teach  ?'  said  His  Royal 
Highness,  rapidly.  I  intimated  that  he  taught  theology. 
'  Monstrous  clever  man,'  said  the  Duke,  '  he  could  teach  any 
^hing.'     I  had  heard  Dr.  Chalmers  on  many  great  occasions, 

VOL.   IV. C 


50  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 


but  probably  his  London  lectures  afforded  the  most  remark- 
able illustrations  of  his  extraordinary  power,  and  must  be 
ranked  among  the  most  signal  triumphs  of  oratory  in  any 
age." 

No  time  was  lost  in  presenting  these  lectures  in  an   au- 
thentic form  before  the  public.     They  passed  speedily  through 
several  editions,  eight  thousand  copies  having  been  circulated 
within  a  year,  and  they  are  now  to  be  found  in  the  seventeenth 
volume  of  his  works.      Throughout  them  one  prevalent  and 
predominant  idea  is  to  be  traced.     It  was  presented,  indeed, 
in  the  very  title  by  which  they  were  originally  announced 
as  being  "  upon  the  Establishment  and  Extension  of  National 
Churches  as  affording  the  only  adequate  machinery  for  the 
moral  and  Christian  instruction  of  a  people."     Dr.  Chalmers 
regards  as  the  chief  distinction,  the  proudest  glory  of  an  Es- 
tablished Church,  that  by  it,  and  it  only,  the  whole  mass  of  the 
community,  down  to  the  meanest  and  most  worthless,  could  be 
reached  and  thoroughly  pervaded.     Though  he  was  far  from 
insensible  to  such  secondary  advantages  as  the  higher  sta- 
tus, greater  learning,  and  superior  influence  of  its  clergy,  the 
freedom  given  by  a  firm  position  and  fixed  creed  from  the 
wayward  impulses  of  a  changing  belief,  the  great  moral  and 
political  benefit  rendered  to  the  State,  by  raising  the  tone  of 
principle  and  feeling,  and  tempering  the  passions  of  the  popu- 
lace— not  one  nor  all  of  these  lent  any  charm  to  an  Establish- 
ment in  his  eye,  as  compared  with  its  possession  of  a  power  by 
which,  if  rightly  used,  the  pure  and  holy  truths  of  Christianity 
might  be  carried  into  every  hamlet,  and  brought  to  bear  upon 
every  conscience  and  every  heart.    In  conducting  his  vindica- 
tion of  Establishments,  every  other  feature  seems  lost  in  this. 
It  is  upon  the  superior  efficacy  of  the  territorial  arrangement 
that  he  dwells ;   that  arrangement  peculiar  to  an  Establish- 
ment, by  which  a  certain  definite  district  of  town  or  country, 
— every  part  of  which  he  was  required  to  cultivate,  every 
house  in  which  it  was  his  duty  to  enter — was  assigned  to  each 
clergyman.     Let  these  districts  be  but  small  enough  ;  let  the 


JET.  58.  PROTESTANTISM  AND  POPERY.  51 


whole  country  be  broken  up  into  manageable  sections,  and  let 
workmen  full  of  zeal  in  the  service  of  the  Saviour  be  planted 
in  each  of  them  ;  this  was  the  likeliest — this  to  his  eye  was 
the  only  method  by  which  the  multitudes,  already  suffered  to 
wander  into  ignorance  and  irrehgion,  could  be  reclaimed,  and 
the  universal  Christianity  of  the  country  be  upheld.  For  this, 
however,  two  things  were  required  :  first,  that  the  State  should 
select  and  employ  some  one  Church  for  the  accomplishment 
of  this  work  ;  and,  secondly,  that  it  should  adequately  endow 
this  Church,  and  progressively  extend  it.  In  fixing  upon  the 
Church  whose  instrumentality  was  to  be  employed,  there  was 
one  broad  and  clear  ground  of  choice.  No  difficulty  could 
be  felt  in  rejecting  the  Papacy,  in  choosing  some  one  form  at 
least  of  Protestantism.  "  He  could  not  imagine,"  said  Dr. 
Chalmers,  "  a  more  testing  evidence  of  an  incompetent  and 
vulgarized  parliament,  than  that  it  should  not  be  qualified  to 
decide  the  question  between  the  merits  of  Protestantism  and 
Popery — or  which  of  the  two  systems,  not  in  respect  of  policy, 
but  in  respect  of  absolute  truth  and  of  sacred  obligation,  is 
the  most  worthy  of  being  upholden  as  the  national  faith  of 
these  realms.  This  is  neither  a  minute,  nor  is  it  a  manifold 
controversy,  but  one  great  and  simple  question,  on  which,  too, 
there  shine  the  broadest  lights,  both  of  moral  and  historical 
evidence  :  and  that  is,  whether  the  Scriptures,  as  being  of 
Divine  authority,  be  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  practice  in 
religion  ;  or  whether,  co-ordinate  therewith,  the  decisions  of 
any  oouncils  or  governors  in  the  Church,  after  the  days  of  the 
apostles,  should  be  admitted  to  an  equal  or  superior  lordship 
over  the  consciences  of  men  ?  In  this  nation,  of  all  others, 
there  is  none,  with  the  ordinary  schooling  of  a  gentleman, 
who  could  not  thoroughly  inform  himself,  and  by  the  reading  of 
a  few  weeks,  on  this  great  question,  so  as  to  decide  between  the 
authority  of  the  Bible  and  the  authority  of  Home's  Apostate 
Church  ;  between  the  miracles  of  the  gospel,  performed  in 
the  face  of  the  then  civilized  world,  and  the  mummeries  of 
the  Papal  superstition,  transmitted  to  us  in  barbarous  legends 


52  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

— those  products  of  the  cells  and  the  convents  which  over- 
spread Europe  through  the  dark  and  dreary  millennium  of 
the  middle  ages.  We  need  only  a  parliament  of  England's 
best  principled  and  best  educated  men.  But  should  we  not 
be  so  fortunate ;  should  the  disaster  ever  befall  us,  of  vulgar 
and  upstart  politicians  to  be  lords  of  the  ascendant ;  should 
an  infidel  or  demi-infidel  government  wield  for  a  season  the 
destinies  of  this  mighty  empire,  and  be  willing,  at  the  shrine 
of  their  own  wretched  partisanship,  to  make  sacrifice  of  those 
great  and  hallowed  institutions,  which  were  consecrated  by  our 
ancestors  to  the  maintenance  of  religious  truth  and  religious 
liberty ;  should,  in  particular,  the  monstrous  proposition  ever 
be  entertained,  not  to  tolerate  (for  that  is  quite  as  it  should 
be)  but  to  endow  Popery — not  perhaps  to  aboHsh,  but  at  least 
to  abridge  the  legal  funds  for  the  support  of  Protestantism, 
and  at  all  events  to  uphold  an  anti-scriptural,  and  with  this 
aggravation,  that  it  should  be  at  the  expense  and  with  the 
diminution  of  a  scriptural  faith — let  us  hope  that  there  is 
still  enough,  not  of  fiery  zeal,  but  of  calm,  resolute,  and  with- 
al enlightened  principle  in  the  land  to  resent  the  outrage — 
enough  of  energy  and  reaction,  in  the  revolted  sense  of  this 
great  country,  to  meet  and  overbear  it." 

In  speaking  of  the  circumstances  which  determine  a  gov- 
ernment to  choose  one  rather  than  another  Protestant  de- 
nomination, Dr.  Chalmers  made  light  of  all  differences  in 
the  mere  forms  and  order  of  worship  and  of  government. 
Compared  with  the  inestimable  benefit  of  setting  up  an 
apparatus  by  which  a  cheap  and  universal  Christian  educa- 
tion might  be  communicated  to  every  household,  these  should 
be  as  dust  in  the  balance.  To  gain  an  end  so  noble,  he 
would  have  had  all  the  evangelical  dissenters  of  England  to 
sink,  as  he  himself  would  have  been  ready  to  do,  all  their 
objections  to  Episcopacy  ;  and  to  gain  the  same  great  end, 
the  Church  of  England  should  open  her  bosom  wide  enough' 
to  take  them  in.  "  When  once  the  Church  of  England 
shall  have  come  down  from  all  that  is  transcendental  or  mys- 


MT.  58.      CLAIMS  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.  53 

terious  in  her  pretensions ;  and,  quitting  the  plea  of  her 
exclusive  apostolical  derivation,  shall  rest  more  upon  that 
wherein  the  real  greatness  of  her  strength  lies — the  purity 
of  her  doctrines — her  deeds  of  high  prowess  and  champion- 
ship in  the  battles  of  the  faith — the  noble  contributions 
which  have  been  rendered  by  her  scholars  and  her  sons  to 
that  Christian  literature,  which  is  at  once  the  glory  and  the 
defense  of  Protestantism — the  ready-made  apparatus  of  her 
churches  and  parishes — the  unbroken  hold  which,  as  an 
establishment,  she  still  retains  on  the.  mass  of  society — and 
her  unforfeited  possessory  right  to  be  reckoned  and  deferred 
to  as  an  Establishment  still — when  these,  the  true  elements 
of  her  legitimacy  and  her  power,  come  to  be  better  under- 
stood, in  that  proportion  will  she  be  recognized  as  the  great 
standard  and  rallying-post,  for  all  those  who  would  unite 
their  efforts  and  their  sacrifices  in  that  mighty  cause,  the 
object  of  which  is  to  send  throughout  our  families,  in  more 
plentiful  supply,  those  waters  of  life  which  can  alone  avail 
for  the  healing  of  the  nation." 

On  the  morning  of  the  day  on  which  he  was  to  touch  on 
the  nature  of  the  connection  between  Church  and  State,  a 
friend  asked  him  whether  he  did  not  feel  that  he  was  coming 
on  delicate  ground  in  the  presence  of  the  dignitaries  and 
members  of  a  Church  which  acknowledged  the  Sovereign 
as  its  head.  "No,"  he  replied;  "it  is  the  most  important 
point  of  the  whole  discussion;  it  is  the  basis  and  strength 
of  my  whole  argument :  without  it  I  could  not  have  opened 
my  mouth  on  the  subject ;  and  if  there  be  any  one  of  these 
lectures  on  which  my  mind  is  clearer  and  more  made  up 
than  another,  it  is  on  the  one  I  am  going  to  deliver  to-day." 
In  the  course  of  that  lecture,  while  engaged  in  removing 
the  objection  that  the  connection  between  Church  and  State 
necessarily  implied  a  vitiating  or  secularizing  of  Christianity,. 
Dr.  Chalmers  quoted  a  conversation  which  he  had  had  with 
an  American  clergyman,  who  said  to  him,  "If  all  you  mean 
by  an  Establishment  is  an  organized  provision  for  a  clergy, 


54  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALxMERS.  1838. 

we  should  rejoice  in  it.  The  thing  we  deprecate  is  the 
authority  of  the  civil  magistrate  in  matters  of  religion." 
"  Now  this,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  "this  organized  provision  is 
truly  all  that  we  contend  for.  It  is  just,  in  other  words,  a 
legal  provision  for  the  support  of  a  Christian  ministry;  an 
arrangement  which  might  truly  be  gone  into,  and  which 
actually  is  gone  into,  without  the  slightest  infringement  on 
the  spiritual  perogatives  of  the  Church,  or  the  ecclesiastical 
independence  of  her  clergymen.  In  respect  of  this  ecclesia.s- 
tical  independence,  I  am  not  aware  of  any  serious  practical 
obstacle  to  the  exercise  of  it  in  England  ;  and  at  all  events, 
we  know  of  nothing  more  perfect  in  this  respect  than  the 
constitution  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  There  is,  to  each 
of  its  members,  an  independent  voice  from  within  ;  and 
from  without,  there  is  no  power  or  authority  whatever  in 
matters  ecclesiastical.  They  who  feel  dislike  to  an  Estab- 
ment  do  so,  in  general,  because  of  their  recoil  from  all  con- 
tact and  communication  with  the  State.  We  have  no  other 
communication  with  the  State  than  that  of  being  maintained 
by  it,  after  which  we  are  left  to  regulate  the  proceedings  of 
our  great  Home  Mission,  with  all  the  purity,  and  the  piety, 
and  the  independence  of  any  missionary  board.  We  are  ex- 
posed to  nothing  from  without  which  can  violate  the  sanctity 
of  the  apostolical  character,  if  ourselves  do  not  violate  it. 
And  neither  are  we  exposed  to  aught  which  can  trench  on 
the  authority  of  the  apostolical  office,  if  we  ourselves  make 
no  surrender  of  it.  In  things  ecclesiastical  we  decide  all. 
Some  of  these  things  may  be  done  wrong,  but  still  they  are 
our  majorities  which  do  it.  They  are  not,  they  can  not  be, 
forced  upon  us  from  without.  We  own  no  head  of  the 
Church  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Whatever  is  done  ec- 
clesiastically, is  done  by  our  ministers  as  acting  in  His  name, 
and  in  perfect  submission  to  His  authority.  Implicated  as 
the  Church  and  State  are  imagined  to  be,  they  are  not  so 
implicated  as  that,  without  the  concurrence  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical courts,  a  full  and  final  effect  can  be  given  to  any  pro- 


.^T.  .38.     INDEPENDENCE  OF  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.         55 

ceeding  by  which  the  good  of  Christianity,  and  the  rehgion 
of  our  people  may  be  affected.  There  is  not  a  clerical  ap- 
pointment which  can  take  place  in  any  one  of  our  parishes 
till  we  have  sustained  it.  Even  the  law  of  patronage,  right 
or  wrong,  is  in  force,  not  by  the  power  of  the  State,  but  by 
the  permission  of  the  Church,  and  with  all  its  fancied  om- 
nipotence, has  no  other  basis  than  that  of  our  majorities  to 
rest  upon.  It  should  never  be  forgotten  that,  in  things  ec- 
clesiastical, the  highest  power  of  our  Church  is  amenable  to 
no  higher  power  on  earth  for  its  decisions.  It  can  exclude  ; 
it  can  deprive  ;  it  can  depose,  at  pleasure.  External  force 
might  make  an  obnoxious  individual  the  holder  of  a  benefice; 
but  there  is  no  external  force  in  these  realms  that  could 
make  him  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  There 
is  not  one  thing  which  the  State  can  do  to  our  independent 
and  indestructible  Church  but  strip  her  of  her  temporalities, 
Nee  tamen  consumehatur,  she  would  remain  a  Church  not- 
withstanding— as  strong  as  ever  in  the  props  of  her  own 
moral  and  inherent  greatness  ;  and,  though  shriveled  in  all 
her  dimensions  by  the  moral  injury  inflicted  on  many  thou- 
sands of  families,  she  would  be  at  least  as  strong  as  ever  in 
the  reverence  of  her  country's  population.  She  was  as  much 
a  Church  in  her  days  of  suffering  as  in  her  days  of  outward 
security  and  triumph ;  when  a  wandering  outcast,  with 
naught  but  the  mountain  breezes  to  play  around  her,  and 
naught  but  the  caves  of  the  earth  to  shelter  her,  as  now, 
when  admitted  to  the  bowers  of  an  Establishment.  The 
magistrate  might  withdraw  his  protection,  and  she  cease  to 
be  an  Establishment  any  longer  ;  but  in  all  the  high  mat- 
ters of  sacred  and  spiritual  jurisdiction,  she  would  be  the 
same  as  before.  With  or  without  an  Establishment,  she,  in 
these,  is  the  unfettered  mistress  of  her  doings.  The  king  by 
himself,  or  by  his  representative,  might  be  the  spectator  of 
our  proceedings  ;  but  what  Lord  Chatham  said  of  the  poor 
man's  house,  is  true  in  all  its  parts  of  the  Church  to  which 
I  have  the  honor  to  belong — '  In  England  every  man's  house 


56  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

is  his  castle  :  not  that  it  is  surrounded  with  walls  and  bat- 
tlements ;  it  may  be  a  straw-built  shed  ;  every  wind  of 
heaven  may  whistle  round  it ;  every  element  of  heaven  may 
enter  it ;   but  the  king  can  not — the  king  dare  not.'  " 

The  spiritual  independence  of  the  Scottish  Church  thus 
eloquently  described  was  now  on  the  eve  of  violation,  and 
v/hen  that  violation  drove  Dr.  Chalmers  from  its  pale,  many 
who  on  the  delivery  of  this  passage  had  been  the  loudest  in 
their  applause  were  the  readiest  in  accusing  him  of  inconsis- 
tency, while  he  was  only  abiding  by  that  great  principle 
which  he  had  always  held,^  and  so  frequently  and  fervently 
advocated. 

*  The  passage  quoted  above  was  taken  from  a  sermon  preached  in 
Edinburgh  in  May  1829,  some  years  before  any  public  discussion  of 
the  question  as  to  the  Church's  spiritual  independence. — See  Dr. 
Chalmers's  Works,  vol.  xi.  p.  439. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

VISIT  TO  PARIS— TOUR  THROUGH  SOME  OF  THE  INLAND 
PROVINCES  OF  FRANCE. 

From  the  time  of  his  appointment  as  one  of  its  corres- 
ponding members,  Dr.  Chalmers  had  cherished  the  intention 
of  reading  a  paper  before  the  Royal  Institute  of  France.  In 
execution  of  this  design,  he  left  England,  for  Paris,  early  in 
June  1838,  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Chalmers  and  two  of  his 
daughters.  Lady  Elgin,  Sir  John  and  Lady  Hay,  Lady 
Shaw  Stewart,  and  Mr.  Erskine,  all  of  whom  were  there, 
vied  with  each  other  in  affording  him  every  opportunity  for 
thoroughly  exploring  Paris ;  and  to  the  same  kind  friends  he 
was  indebted  for  more  than  one  interesting  glimpse  into  the 
interior  of  French  society.  From  the  journal  kept  upon  this 
occasion  a  few  extracts  are  presented. 

''June  10th. — Much  impressed  with  the  beauty  and 
lightness  of  Paris,  up  and  down  the  Seine.  Delighted  with 
the  Tuileries  garden  ;  its  sculpture,  its  shaded  walks,  its 
groups  of  pedestrians.  But  how  much  more  still  and  leis- 
urely every  thing  moves  here  than  in  London.  All  in  Paris 
is  within  a  manageable  compass  ;  and  I  was  not  prepared 
for  its  being  so  much  less  busy,  and  populous,  and  extensive, 
than  our  own  metropolis.  It  is  more  a  city  of  loungers  ; 
and  life  moves  on  at  a  more  rational  pace.  Its  buildings 
are  more  impressive. 

''June  11th. — Hurried  away  with  Mr.  Erskine  to  wait 
on  Guizot.  Found  him  at  home.  He  speaks  English  toler- 
ably. Struck  with  the  smallness  of  his  establishment ;  cer- 
tainly not  superior  to  the  average  of  the  W.  S.'s  in  Edin- 
burgh. Literary  aspect  of  the  rooms.  Mentioned  my  Chris- 
tian and  Civic  Economy.    Told  him  how  much  his  opinions 


# 

58  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

on  education  were  valued  in  England.  He  said  that  the  con- 
nection between  the  moral  and  the  economical  was  a  subject 
altogether  new  and  unknown  in  France.  He  readily  acqui- 
esced in  the  distinction  between  a  charity  for  indigence,  and 
one  for  disease  ;  and  said  there  was  a  growing  aversion  in  his 
country  to  the  admission  of  the  principle  that  the  poor  had 
a  right  to  subsistence.  Took  cordial  leave  of  him.  In  the 
lower  story  was  introduced  to  his  mother,  Madame  Guizot, 
who  told  me  that  she  had  read  my  works  ;  a  very  kind, 
and,  I  am  told,  worthy  person,  with  a  most  maternal  and 
benign  manner.  Hence  with  Mr.  Cowan  to  M.  Mignet  near 
the  Foreign  Office,  where  he  has  an  employment.  Sitting 
at  papers  ;  young  and  of  an  open  countenance  ;  remarkably 
good-looking.  No  English,  but  very  polite  and  cordial.  Pwe- 
lieved  by  knowing  that  there  was  no  immediate  hurry  for 
my  article.^  The  Due  de  Broglie  joined  us  ;  and  he  also 
very  polite.  Felt  a  little  embarrassment  with  my  total 
want  of  French,  and  their  want  of  Enghsh.  Mr.  Cowan 
of  great  use.  The  Due  de  Broglie  called  afterward  at  my 
hotel,  and  left  his  card. 

"•  Jime  12th. — Slowness,  unpunctuality,  and  withal  irra- 
tional dearness  of  French  tradesmen  and  dealers.  But  Paris 
better  than  London,  in  not  being  a  place  of  extreme  and 
high-pressure  work  in  all  the  departments  of  industry.  More 
favorable  to  intellect,  to  man  in  his  loftier  capacities,  to  all 
the  better  and  higher  purposes  of  our  nature.  *  *  ^  Pro- 
fessor Stapfer,  nephew  of  the  author,  told  me  on  the  author- 
ity of  Baron  Maurice,  that  La  Place  was  restless  and  in- 
quiring on  his  last  illness ;  that  he  sought  for  books  and  had 
first    Burnet's   '  Evidences  on   Christianity'  f   read   to  him ; 

*  The  article  read  by  Dr.  Chalmers  on  this  occasion  before  the  In- 
stitute was  on  the  "  Distinction,  both  in  principle  and  effect,  between  a 
Legal  Charity  for  the  Relief  of  Indigence  and  a  Legal  Charity  for  the 
Relief  of  Disease."    It  will  be  found  in  his  Works,  vol.  xxi  p.  369—408. 

t  I  suppose  that  the  reference  here  is  to  a  small  treatise  of  Bishop 
Burnet,  entitled  "  A  Rational  Method  for  Proving  the  Truth  of  the 
Christian  Religion."     London,  1693. 


^T.  58.  ANFX'DOTE  OF  LA  PLACE.  ,50 

that  he  rejected  his  view  on  miracles  ;  that  my  '  Evidences' 
vi^ere  then  read,  with  which  he  declared  himself  more  satis- 
fied, and  more  especially  that  it  did  not  theorize  on  mira- 
cles, but  treated  them  on  the  footing  of  historical.  This 
the  Professor  had  from  Baron  Maurice,  of  Geneva  himself, 
between  whom  and  La  Place  the  whole  transaction  took 
place.*  I  am,  therefore,  to  send  my  first  new  volume  on 
the  '  Evidences'  to  Stapfer,  that  he  might  show  the  chap- 
ters on  Hume  and  La  Place  to  the  Baron,  and  others  of  the 
like  mathematical  taste  and  understanding.  Drew  much  to 
Grandpierre,  President  of  the  Missionary  Society. 

"  Wed7iesday,  June  I'Sth. — Went  to  the  Louvre.  Had 
to  show  our  passports.  Gorgeous  and  large  pictures  in  the 
ante-room.  Struclc  with  the  picture  of  one  of  Bonaparte's 
battles  in  his  retreat  from  Moscow.  The  expression  of 
Napoleon  very  striking — as  if  solemnized  by  the  greatness 
of  the  coming  disaster,  yet  with  an  air  of  full  inteUigence, 
and  serenity,  and  majesty,  and  a  deep  mournful  expression 
withal.  The  long  gallery  of  the  Louvre  superb  ;  impressed 
at  once  with  the  superiority  of  its  pictures.  Very  much 
interested  in  the  Flemish  pictures,  of  which  there  were 
some  very  admirable  ones  by  David  Teniers.  I  am  fond  of 
Rembrandt's  portraits  ;  and  was  much  pleased  in  recogniz- 
ing the  characteristics  of  Rubens,  Poussin,  and  Claude  Lor- 
rain.  I  also  remarked  that  in  most  of  the  Italian  schools, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Venetian,  there  was  a  total  want 
of  shading  off;  yet  the  separate  figures,  though  not  har- 
monized with  the  background,  very  striking  in  themselves. 
The  statuary  of  painting  perhaps  expresses  the  style  of  the 
Romans  and  other  such  schools.  There  is  a  quadrangle 
recently  attached  to  the  east  end  of  the  gallery,  filled  with 
the  models  of  towns,  ships,  and  machinery  ;  the  towns  very 
instructive.  But  the  most  interesting  part  of  this  depart- 
ment is  the  Spanish  pictures,  in  all  of  which  the  strong 
emotions  are  most  powerfully  expressed.  There  is  quite  a 
*  See  Appendix,  A. 


60  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

Stamp  of  national  peculiarity  in  these  works.  The  walls 
which  contain  them  seem  all  alive  with  the  passions  and 
thoughts  of  living  men.  The  freshness  and  force  of  the 
coloring  quite  remarkable,  considering  the  age  of  the  pictures. 

Sir  John  and  Lady  Hay  kindly  gave  us  their  carriage 
to  take  us  to  and  from  an  evening  party  at  Lady  El- 
gin's, invited  on  my  account,  and  consisting  of  some  of  the 
most  eminent  people  in  Paris.  Due  de  Broglie  kind  but  re- 
tired. He  arranged  for  me  an  introduction  to  the  Cham- 
ber of  Peers.  M.  Guizot,  intellectual  and  talented.  He 
arranged  also  for  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  Had  some 
talk  with  him.  I  told  him  how  limited  the  public  were 
who  would  entertain  the  topics  of  the  moral  and  the  econ- 
omique  in  conjunction.  He  fully  congenialized  with  my 
own  view,  that,  nevertheless,  the  solution  of  all  the  great 
problems  lay  in  the  reciprocal  influence  of  these  two  ele- 
ments. In  speaking  of  the  moral,  I  identified  it  with  the 
Christian  influence,  in  which  I  apprehend  that  he  fully  con- 
curs. Guizot  talked  much  with  a  Catholic  lady  who  could 
not  speak  English,  but  who  purposes  to  translate  my  '  Na- 
tural Theology,'  and  she  \vas  very  cordial  to  myself  Felt 
this  cordiality,  indeed,  to  be  quite  general ;  and  I  did  enjoy 
the  party  very  much.  M.  Mignet  also  there,  of  whom  Lady 
Elgin  thought  highly. 

"  Thursday,  June  lith. — The  commonalty  all  well 
dressed ;  and  whatever  the  real  profligacy  may  be,  they 
have  all  the  aspect,  expression,  and  manner  of  a  most  moral, 
orderly,  and  withal  kind  and  companionable  people.  On 
our  return  entered  a  most  singular  cafe,  leading  to  a  gar- 
den, in  the  midst  of  which  there  was  a  sort  of  templar  erec- 
tion, making  altogether  a  little  Vauxhall,  with  innumerable 
parties,  placed  on  benches,  or  ranged  about  tables,  in  the 
Parisian  style  of  conviviality.  We  had  fireworks  and  music, 
to  those  passages  of  which  that  were  most  responded  to  by 
the  auditors,  I  was  wholly  insensible.  There  were  at  least 
9.  thousand  people  outside,  who  had  the  benefit  of  the  ex? 


MT.  58.  THE  INSTITUTE.     •  61 

hibition  gratis,  those  inside  giving  ten-pence  each.  I  was 
much  impressed  by  the  decorum  of  the  crowd  ;  their  respect- 
able dress,  and  perfect  modesty  both  of  look  and  manner.  I 
have  never  in  a  single  instance  seen  the  offensive  or  inde- 
cent obtruded  on  our  notice  in  this  city. 

"  Friday,  June  15th. — We  were  carried  down  to  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies.  Struck  with  the  poorness  of  the  equi- 
pages which  carried  the  Deputies  to  and  from  their  Cham- 
ber. Those  who  did  come  in  a  vehicle  at  all,  came  in  a 
one-horse  cab,  paying  their  francs  ;  and  a  row  of  these,  aboul 
half  a  dozen,  seemed  to  compose  the  traveling  equipage  of 
the  members,  where  the  horses,  with  draff-pocks  appended 
to  their  mouths,  out  of  which  they  were  eating,  formed  a  sorry 
contrast  with  the  splendidly  harnessed  carriages  of  our  English 
senators. 

"  Saturday,  June  l^tk. — Walked  over  to  the  Institute  at 
twelve,  and  attended  a  sitting  of  the  Academy  of  Moral  and 
Political  Science.  M.  Mignet  introduced  me.  Taken  into 
the  centre  of  the  oval  green  table,  around  which  the  mem- 
bers are  placed.  Mignet  spoke  a  good  deal  on  the  business 
matters,  and  seemed  to  do  it  sensibly  and  impressively.  The 
room  is  a  large  oblong.  The  table  annular,  and  is  an  ellipse 
of  great  eccentricity  ;  the  president's  platform  is  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  conjugate  axis.  The  members  sit  round  the 
exterior  circumference  of  the  table,  and  the  strangers  on  two 
rows  of  forms  along  the  walls. 

"  Sunday,  June  \ltli. — An  old  lady  told  me  what  was 
very  interesting,  that  her  particular  friend,  Jean  Baptiste 
Say,  received  a  copy  of  my  '  Political  Economy'  through  Mr. 
James  Maconochie  ;  that  he  read  it  with  the  greatest  inter- 
est ;  that  even  in  his  last  illness,  he  expressed  himself  de- 
lighted with  having  received  it.  I  could  not  understand, 
however,  whether  he  acquiesced  in  its  doctrines. 

"  Monday,  June  l^th. — Mr.  Wilks  told  us  frightful  things 
of  what  he  termed  the  insolence  of  the  French  against  God, 
in  the  matter  of  the  cholera.      They  introduced  it  into  their 


*iZ  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMKRS.  1338. 

theatres :  ridiculed  and  defied  it  :  boasted  that  French  sci- 
ence would  prevail  against  it  :  remained  stout  while  it  only 
visited  other  countries,  or  even  the  poor  in  their  own,  till  at 
length  it  came  upon  all  at  the  rate  1500  in  a  day,  when 
there  was  a  universal  terror. 

"  Tuesday,  June  l^th. — Mr.  Charles  Mate  gave  some 
curious  traits  of  the  French  character,  particularly  on  the 
glorious  days  ;  that  it  was  more  a  thing  of  fun  than  of  any 
deep  feeling — a  universal  laughing  about  it  while  it  was  go- 
ing on — people  taking  a  fight  before  dinner,  going  to  their 
restaurateurs,  and  taking  another  fight  after  it.  *  =^  * 
With  Mr.  CamiDbell  in  a  fiacre  to  dinner  at  Mr.  Jamieson'c, 
banker  in  the  Pvue  de  Londres.  A  fine  specimen  both  of  the 
mansion  and  dinner  of  one  of  the  higher  citizens  of  Paris.  A 
respectable  and  elegant,  but  not  very  spacious  house,  toute  a 
la  Frangaise  in  the  whole  air  and  aspect  of  its  furniture  ; 
with  a  most  luxurious  dinner,  served  round  as  in  a  table- 
d'hote,  in  a  succession  of  tit-bits,  perhaps  to  the  extent  of 
from  twelve  to  twenty  varieties.  The  most  memorable  per- 
son was  Mr.  Fran9ois  Delessart,  a  member  of  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  a  Parisian  merchant,  and  very  intelligent  ;  a 
strong  Conservative  ;  but,  like  Mr.  Jamieson,  and  many  other 
merchants,  apprehends  no  harm  from  the  sub-division  of  prop- 
erty. Speaks  of  the  checks  to  it ;  that  it  is  greatly  overrated  ; 
that  family  arrangements  often  prevent  it.  He  promises  me; 
books  which  will  throw  great  light  on  the  subject.  He 
spoke  as  if  greatly  moved  by  my  sermon  on  Sunday,  which 
he  heard  ;  and  which  seems,  from  various  accounts,  to  have 
made  a  great  sensation.^ 

*  "  Je  ne  xne  rappelle  ni  Tannee,  ni  le  mois,  ni  le  dimanche,  ou 
j'eus  le  privilege  de  voir  le  Dr.  Chalmers  occuper  ma  chaire  dans  la 
chapelle  Taitbout :  mais  ce  que  je  n'ai  pas  oublie,  ni  n'oublierai  de  ma 
vie,  e'est  que  je  I'y  ai  vu  et  entendu  preeher.  Les  impressions  qu'il 
fit  sur  moi,  aussi-bien  que  la  foule  de  ceux  qui  etaient  accourus  pour 
Tentendre,  sont  de  celles  qui  ne  s'eflacent  jamais,  C'etait  a  I'epoque 
ou  11  vint  a  Paris  pour  etre,  je  crois,  refu  Membre  de  I'lnstitut  de 
France.      Ma  chapelle  alors  etait  situee  dans  la  rue  dont  elle  a  pri.s  ci 


^T.  58.  SERMON  IN  PARIS.  63 

"  Thursday,  June  2\s,t. — Through  a  street,  the  eastern 
outgoing  of  Rue  de  St.  Dominique,  the  poorest,  though  not 
the  poorest  looking,  in  Paris,  where  the  cholera  was  most 
fatal.  The  people  not  half  so  squalid  looking,  nor  the  houses 
either,  as  the  poorest  in  London. 

"  Friday,  June  22d. — Was  arrested  by  the  information 
that  the  English  Embassador  had  called  at  eight,  and  was 
to  call  again  at  ten.  Amazed  and  put  out  of  sorts  by  this. 
He  of  course  did  not  appear  ;  and  I  breakfasted  at  home, 
and  waited  till  eleven.  Consulted  Mr.  Erskine  about  it. 
He  approved  of  my  going  forth  directly,  calling  at  the  Em- 
bassador's,  and  leaving  an   apologetic  line,   should   he  call 

conserve  le  nom.  C'etait  une  salle  de  concerts,  ayant  forme  de  theatre, 
avec  trois  rangs  de  loges  ou  galleries,  et  pouvant  contenir  de  700  a 
800  personnes.  Le  Docteur  y  precha  deux  dimanches  de  suite,  a  deux 
heures  apres  midi.  Mes  devoirs  pastoraux  m'empecherent  d'assister 
a  sa  seconde  predication,  mais  j'etais  present  a  la  premiere,  et  je  puis 
facilement  vous  en  retracer  les  circonstances.  Quoique  ordinairement 
bien  remplie,  la  chapelle  n'avait  jamais  ete  si  pleine.  Elle  etait  a  la 
lettre  encombree,  et  cette  foule  compacte  se  composait  en  grande  partie 
de  personnes  etrangeres  a  notre  culte.  II  y  avait  bien  peu  des  Mera- 
bres  de  I'Institut  et  des  differents  corps  savants  de  Paris  qui  ne  s'y 
trouvassent  pas,  tous  attires  par  le  grand  interet  que  leur  inspiraient 
le  savoir  et  la  reputation  du  Docteur.  Les  places  devinrent  si  rares 
qu'ayant  cru  devoir,  par  convenance,  ceder  les  deux  ou  trois  chaises 
que  j'occupai  tour  a  tour,  je  fus  reduit  a  n'avoir  pour  siege  que  Tune 
des  trois  marches  de  fescalier  de  ma  chaire  ;  et  c'est  dela  que  je  pus 
a  la  fois  voir  la  physionomie  de  Tassemblee,  apprecier  la  profonde  at- 
tention qu'elle  pretait  au  Docteur,  Fecouter  moi-meme,  et  suivre  tous 
ses  mouvements.  II  n'y  eut  rien  dans  son  debut  qui  me  frappat  d'abord. 
Je  dirai  meme  que  son  attitude,  son  regard  vague,  et  le  ton  monotone 
de  sa  voix  durant  I'acte  de  la  priere  qui  preceda  son  sermon,  furent 
loin  de  me  la  reveler  pour  ce  qu'il  etait.  Mais  bientot  le  predicateur 
se  montra,  et  je  ne  tardai  pas,  comme  tout  I'auditoire,  a  etre  saisi  d'ad- 
miration,  et  de  plus  en  plus  domine  par  la  puissance  de  son  langage  et 
de  son  action  oratoire.  II  prit  son  texte  dans  la  Ire  de  St.  Jean  iv.  8. 
— '  God  is  love.'  Son  discours  etait  ecrit.  Pendant  quelque  temps 
il  eut  devant  lui  son  manuscrit  qu'il  tenait  deploye  de  la  main  gauche, 
et  dont  il  suivait  chaque  ligne  avec  I'index  de  la  main  droite.  Mais 
cette  lecture,  qu'il  savait  rendre  aussi  attrayante  qu'impressive,  fut 
souvent  interrompue,  pour  ceder  la  place  a  I'indication  ou  a  I'exposi- 


64  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMP:RS.  1838. 

again.  Proceeded  with  him  to  the  Embassador's.  Luckily 
missed  him,  and  unluckily  left  my  card.  On  returning  met 
a  Dr.  Wright,  who  cleared  up  the  mystery  of  the  provoking 
and  ludicrous  mistake.  He  had  called  at  eight ;  given  his 
designation  to  the  porter  of  '  Ministre  de  I'Eglise,'  understood 
by  him  as  '  le  Ministre  Anglais  ;'  and  left  me  in  a  state  of 
uncertainty  whether  to  laugh  or  to  cry  at  the  absurdity  of 
the  whole  transaction. 

"  Sunday,  June  2^th. — Madame  Pelet  breakfasted  with 
us  at  ten.  Had  much  conversation  with  this  pious  and  in- 
telligent lady,  on  Christian  and  economical  subjects.  Her 
kindness  unbounded  ;  and  she  affords  the  far  likeliest  inlet  for 
me  to  the  knowledge  of  all  that  interests  me  in  France.  She 
is  the  daughter  and  only  child  of  the  deceased  embassador 
Otto. 

Wednesday,  J^me  21th. — A  French  company  to  dinner 
at  Madame  Pelet's.  The  Count  very  interesting — her  fa- 
ther-in-law. The  Baron,  her  husband,  very  silent,  but  in- 
telligent too  :  is  a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Peers.  Our 
talk,  through  the  medium  of  Madame  Pelet,  was  chiefly  of 

tion  improvisee  de  nouveaux  points  de  vue  du  sujet,  non  traites  dans 
le  discours  ecrit ;  et  le  langage  que  son  emotion  fournissait  alors  au/ 
Docteur  energique,  nuance,  clair  et  harmonieux,  vraiment  celui  de 
I'eloquence.  II  me  semble  encore  le  voir  avec  son  manuscrit  plie  en 
rouleau  dans  sa  main,  le  corps  penche  en  avant,  un  pen  en  dehors  de  la 
chaire,  et  prenant  a  partie  tous  ses  auditeurs,  leur  adressev  les  appels 
les  plus  directs,  et  les  plus  propres  a  les  atteindre  dans  les  profondeurs 
de  la  conscience.  Ses  paroles  surgissant  evidemment  de  ses  convic- 
tions et  des  bouillonnements  de  son  coeur,  en  etaient  Texpression  fidele, 
et  avaient  queique  chose  de  la  rapidite  et  de  la  force  du  torrent  se  pre- 
cipitant de  la  montagne,  et  entrainant  tout  sur  son  passage.  L'action 
du  Docteur  ne  me  parut  pas  moins  remarquable  que  son  langajje. 
Tout  son  etre  me  sembla  concourir  a  sa  predication.  Quoique  ce  fut 
pour  la  premiere  fois  que  j'entendisse  precher  en  Anglais,  et  quoique 
je  ne  connusse  alors  votre  langue  que  grammaticalement  et  dans  les 
livres,  je  pus  assez  bien  suivre  le  discours  ;  et  j'appris  qu'il  en  avait 
ete  de  meme  d'un  grand  nombre  d'autres  auditeurs  tout  aussi  peu 
avances  que  moi  dans  1' Anglais." — Letter  from  the  Rev.  J.  J.  ^udebez^ 
dated  Paris.  12th  November,  1851. 


JET.  58.  ^    LAW  OF  PRIxMOGENITURB.  65 

primogeniture  and  the  state  of  property  in  France.  I  had 
given  her  my  '  Political  Economy  ;'  and  we  had  talk  of  it 
too,*      They  do  not  think  so  ill  of  their  own  system,  and 

*  From  the  chapter  on  the  Law  of  Primogeniture  in  his  work  on 
Political  Economy,  we  quote  the  following  passage,  a  very  favorite 
one  of  its  author  : — "  France,  under  her  present  system,  and  in  spite 
of  the  convulsive  efforts  made  by  her  in  seasons  of  great  public  excite- 
ment, has  entered,  we  believe,  on  a  sure  process  of  decay  ;  and,  without 
a  more  comfortable  peasantry  than  before,  will  she  sink  in  the  long  run, 
beneath  the  pre-eminence  once  held  by  her  among  the  nations.  We 
feel  quite  assured,  of  every  land  of  law  and  liberty,  that  with  an  order 
of  men  possessing  lai'ge  and  independent  affluence,  there  is  better 
security  for  the  general  comfort  and  virtue  of  the  whole,  than  when 
society  presents  an  aspect  of  almost  unalleviated  plebeianism.  For 
the  best  construction  of  a  social  edifice,  in  every  large  country  like 
ours,  we  would  have  a  king  upon  the  throne— not  rising  like  a  giant 
among  the  pigmies,  or  as  an  unsupported  May-pole  in  the  midst  of  a 
level  population ;  but  borne  up  by  a  splendid  aristocracy,  and  a  grada- 
tion of  ranks  shelving  downward  to  the  basement  of  society.  We 
doubt  if  the  other  monarchy  could  stand ;  or  if  France  with  its  citizeji 
king,  amid  a  mighty  and  ever-increasing  swarm  of  smaller  and  smaller 
agrarians  can  maintain  its  present  economy  for  a  single  generation. 
We  think  of  our  own  political  fabric,  that  it  not  only  affords  a  vastly 
gi-eater  number  of  noble  and  graceful  spectacles,  in  minarets  and  the 
blazing  pinnacles  which  crowd  its  elevation — but  that,  abstracting 
fi'om  the  degradation  which  has  been  caused  by  its  accursed  law  of 
pauperism,  it  would  have  had  a  more  elevated  basement  in  its  well- 
conditioned  peasantry,  than  any  other  country  or  kingdom  of  the  civil- 
ized world.  It  is  not  for  the  sake  of  its  ornaments  and  its  chivalry 
alone — it  is  not  for  the  sake  of  these  chiefly,  that  we  want  the  high 
rank  and  fortune  of  our  aristocracy  to  be  upholden.  It  is  because  we 
think  there  is  a  soul  in  chivalry,  which,  though  nursed  in  the  bosom 
of  affluence,  does  not  cloister  there,  but  passes  abroad  from  mind  to 
mind,  and  lights  up  a  certain  glow  of  inspiration  throughout  the  mass 
of  a  community.  Let  it  only  be  a  land  of  intelligence  and  freedom — 
and  we  think  that,  where  there  are  nobles,  the  common  people  are  not 
so  ignoble ;  and  that,  while  the  property  of  the  rich,  though  scattered, 
as  by  the  law  of  France,  into  innumerable  fragments,  would  not  add  by 
a  single  iota  to  the  avei-age  comfort  of  our  plebeian  families ;  yet  the 
presence  of  the  rich  infuses  a  spirit  that,  by  dignifying  their  characters, 
enables  them  through  the  medium  of  their  own  habits  and  exertions,  to 
dignify  their  condition  also.  It  is  thus,  we  hold,  that  there  are  mate- 
rials in  Britain,  for  the  composition,  altogether,  of  a  finer,  and  higher, 


66  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

make  a  stout  defense  against  my  ideas  of  it.  The  feeling  is 
that  the  commercial  have  compensated  for  the  decay  of  the 
landed  fortunes.  The  abolition  of  primogenituire  brings  a 
much  greater  quantity  of  land  into  the  market,  and  so  yields 
all  the  greater  revenue,  from  the  seven  per  cent,  on  each 
transfer.  They  deny  that  the  sub-division  has  prevented  in 
any  instance  the  levying  of  the  tax.  The  Count  said  it  was 
no  hardship  on  the  family,  that  there  should  be  a  tax  on 
such  sales,  as  the  buyer  paid  it.  He  also  said  that  there 
was  no  rural  aristocracy  spending  much  in  the  country  und'^r 
the  old  regime,  as  they  went  to  their  chateaux  only  to  econ- 
omize, and  spent  almost  all  in  Paris.  This  does  not  affect 
the  question  of  the  higher  luxuries  consumed  in  these  days. 

"  Thursday,  June  28th. — On  leaving  St.  Denis  for  Mont- 
morency, the  scenery  on  our  left  is  very  rich  and  wooded 
The  landscape  grows  in  beauty  as  we  advance.  An  im- 
mense extent  of  vineyards.  The  vale  of  Montmorency  one 
of  the  richest  in  France,  with  its  culture  both  of  corn  and 
vines  ;  and  variegated  by  single  trees  and  even  clumps. 
We  went  off  on  three  donkeys  to  an  elevation,  from  whence 
the  prospects  are  truly  superb,  as  also  from  the  inn,  and 
along  the  road.  Far  the  best  landscape  I  have  seen  in 
France.  On  returning  to  the  inn,  visited  the  Jean  Jacques 
Rousseau  hermitage,  where  he  lived  and  composed  his  works. 
The  house  much  enlarged  now  ;   but  was  shown  his  identical 


and  happier  society,  than  there  are  in  America ;  and  that,  without  one 
taint  of  the  pusillanimous  in  the  spirit  of  our  people,  there  might  be  a 
deference  to  rank,  and  withal  a  truer  greatness  of  soul  and  sentiment, 
than  republicanism,  with  all  its  coarse  and  boastful  independence,  can 
ever  realize.  We  would  therefore,  on  the  whole,  leave  the  existing 
framework  of  our  own  community  undisturbed  ;  and,  instead  of  letting 
down  the  peerage  of  our  realms  to  the  external  condition  of  our  peas- 
antry, we  should  rather  go  forth  among  the  peasantry,  and  do  all  that 
lies  within  the  compass  of  education,  both  to  elevate  their  standard  of 
comfort,  and  to  pour  such  a  moral  lustre  over  them,  as  might  equalize 
them,  either  to  peers  or  to  princes,  in  all  the  loftiest  attributes  of  hn- 
manitv." 


JET.  58.  EXCURSION  INTO  NORMANDY.  67 

apartments,  the  garden,  arbor,  stone  on  which  he  sat  at  the 
foot  of  a  waterfall  and  composed  his  Heloise,  as  well  as  the 
bust  of  Rousseau  himself,  with  an  inscription  beneath  it, 
beside  many  other  votive  testimonies  scrawled  by  admiring 
visitors." 

It  was  with  the  most  eager  dehght  that  Dr.  Chalmers 
embraced  a  proposal  by  Mr.  Erskine,  that  they  should  make 
a  short  tour  together  through  some  of  the  inland  provinces. 
Having  accepted  an  invitation  to  pass  a  day  or  two  at  the 
chateau  of  the  Duke  de  Broghe,  their  first  excursion  was 
into  Normandy. 

"  Friday,  June  29th. — Left  Paris  with  Mr.  Erskine  in 
a  caleche,  at  half-past  nine.  Our  last  stage,  from  Pacy  to 
Evreux.  Here  one  of  the  finest  of  our  first-rate  cathedrals. 
Its  double  tower  had  a  mixture  of  Gothic  and  Grecian  ; 
but  in  all  other  respects  perfect.  The  best  and  greatest 
amount  of  painted  glass,  in  three  distinct  ranges  of  numer- 
ous windows,  I  have  ever  seen.  No  longer  wonder  that 
Paris  with  its  centralization  should  have  such  an  ascendant 
over  France,  with  its  congeries  of  landed  properties  under  a 
constant  process  of  diminution.  But  it  is  a  miserable  state 
of  things,  when  a  single  banker  in  the  capatal  (Lafitte) 
can  change  a  dynasty,  by  feeding  for  a  few  days  the  hordes 
of  a  metropolis.  How  many  bankers  would  suffice  to  effect 
a  revolution  in  England  ?  Total  journey  this  day,  twenty- 
five  and  a  half  leagues. 

"  Saturday,  June  30th. — Our  next  stage  to  Broglie. 
Delighted  with  the  approach.  More  of  English-looking 
grounds,  after  leaving  the  village  on  the  banks  of  the  Cha- 
rente,  than  I  had  before  met  with  in  this  country  ;  and  cer- 
tainly the  best  private  chateau  I  have  seen.  To  me  the 
form  is  singular.  It  consists  mainly  of  two  rectangles  in- 
clined to  each  other,  of  immense  length.  The  public  rooms 
lightly  and  elegantly  furnished ;  and  the  whole  establish- 
ment, as  far  as  I  have  seen,  both  within  and  without  doors, 
complete  and  well-ordered.      All  out  when  we  arrived,  save 


68  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

Madame  de  Stael,  the  Baron's  widow,  now  on  a  visit  here. 
In  a  little  while  the  Duke  came  in ;  afterward  the  Duchess, 
whose  presence,  manner,  and  talk,  at  once  dissipated  every 
feeling  of  strangeness.  Our  conversation  was  chiefly  on 
pauperism,  wherein  the  Duke  mediately  participated.  Had 
many  questions  put  to  me  ;  and  from  the  interest  felt  by 
them  in  it,  gave  her  my  printed  evidence  on  Irish  Poor-laws. 
Much  conversation  in  the  drawing-room.  The  Duke  made 
a  very  able  defense  of  the  French  law  of  succession.  His 
argument  is,  that  if  there  be  no  increase  of  population  there 
will  be  no  diminution  of  properties,  and  that,  besides,  there 
is  a  latitude  of  allowing  one-third  to  the  eldest  over  and 
above  his  share  of  the  remainder  ;  and  the  circumstance  that 
in  some  parts  of  the  country  they  do  now  avail  themselves 
of  this  latitude,  explains,  in  part  at  least,  the  larger  estates 
to  be  met  with  here  and  there.  He  says  that  the  sense  of 
property,  and  the  wish  not  to  fritter  it  down,  must  act  with 
strong  preventive  influences  on  the  matrimonial  arrangements 
of  the  people.  He  also  says,  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
minutely  subdivided  land  on  the  Seine  was  before  not  culti- 
vated at  all.  Drew  much  to  Madame  de  Stael ; — delicate, 
pensive,  highly  interesting,  the  daughter  of  Madame  Vernot, 
and  grand-daughter  of  Professor  Pictet,  as  well  as  sister-in- 
law  to  Diodati  ;  a  younger  brother  now  in  England,  to 
whom,  of  course,  I  must  show  great  attention. 

"  Sunday,  July  \st. — Found  the  morning  worship  party 
in  the  library  at  eleven.  The  Duke  read  a  chapter  of  the 
French  Bible,  the  tenth  of  John,  at  a  table  ;  the  Duchess, 
opposite  to  him,  read  sermon,  one  of  Audebez's.  We  then 
all  knelt,  and  she  uttered  a  French  prayer  \  could  not  fol- 
low it,  but  her  frequent  '  O  Seigneur,'  in  a  most  devotional 
tone,  went  to  my  heart.  Whether  the  prayer  was  extem- 
poraneous or  learned  by  heart,  I  know  not.  At  three,  a 
small  party.  Conversed  in  the  Duchess's  own  apartment, 
when  I  read  a  chapter  and  expounded.  My  topic  was  ap- 
propriation, from  the  tenth  chapter  of  the  Romans.     It  gave 


JET.  58.  DOMESTIC  WORSHIP  AT  BROGLIE.  69 

rise  to  a  brief  conversation,  chiefly  on  the  part  of  Mademoi- 
selle Ponnarrie,  who  must  in  part  have  understood  me. 
She  is  the  same  I  met  in  Lady  Elgin's  and  who  was  spoken 
of  to  me  as  likely  to  translate  my  'Natural  Theology.' 
Madame  de  Stael  said  I  had  given  her  much  comfort.  All 
here  are  Catholics  but  the  Duchess  and  Madame  de  Stael. 
Was  shewn  Diodati's  translation  of  my  St.  John's  Sermons. 
Family  worship  in  the  evening,  consisting  of  a  chapter  and 
ihe  Lord's  Prayer,  at  which  we  knelt,  the  Duchess  officia- 
ting ;  about  seven  domestics  present  in  the  morning,  and 
fifteen  in  the  evening. 

"Monday,  July  2d.-'— My.  Erskine  and  I,  in  going  out, 
were  arrested  by  the  Duchess,  who  sent  us  to  the  Duke, 
with  whom  we  had  a  most  interesting  conversation.  He 
says  that  at  Lisle  there  is  a  first-rate  agriculture  in  large 
farms,  from  small  properties  pieced  together  ;  that  in  the 
Canton  of  Berne,  one  part,  under  the  law  of  primogeniture, 
has  large  properties,  splendid  houses,  admirable  agriculture, 
but  a  population  supported  by  a  poor-rate  ;  another  part, 
under  the  law  of  equal  division,  has  a  worse  agriculture, 
and  a  better-conditioned  population,  without  a  pauper  among 
them.  Madame  de.  Broglie  told  us  that  almost  all  the 
landed  gentry  were  Carlists,  and  that  the  soreness  of  feeling 
was  such  as  that  there  was  no  intercourse  between  the  op- 
posite partisans.  The  clergy  also  much  opposed  to  the  pres- 
ent Government,  though  gradually  coming  round,  which — 
such  still  is  the  remaining  strength  of  the  ecclesiastical  in- 
fluence— is  of  great  consequence  to  Louis  Philippe.  I  had 
a  most  interesting  converse  with  the  Duke,  through  Mr. 
Erskine,  in  his  library  after  dinner.  I  learn  from  him  that 
the  improvement  of  an  estate  does  not  expose  it  to  a  greater 
land-tax  than  before — that  if  the  whole  tax  is  changed  in 
amount,  the  proportion  paid  by  each  estate  to  the  whole  is 
invariable — that  at  present  the  whole  sum  raised  by  the 
land-tax  is  a  hundred  and  forty  millions  a  year — that  there 
are  some  properties  in  France  whose  rental  is  a  million  of 


70  MEMOIRS  OF   DH.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

francs,  or  £40,000  yearly — that  three  whom  he  knows  in 
the  Chamber  of  Peers  have  this  income  from  land  ;  three 
more  have  £20,000,  and  forty  or  sixty  members  have 
£10,000  yearly  from  land,  or  thereabouts.  He  admits 
that  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  has  not  so  much  wealth  in 
it  as  formerly,  and  that  because  the  most  opulent  are  against 
the  present  Government,  and  have  not  taken  the  oaths  to 
Louis  Philippe.  He  farther  informed  us,  that  he  knew  of 
seven  or  eight  properties  in  the  department  of  the  Eure 
which  have  a  population  of  350,000,  that  yield  to  their 
owners  from  £3000  to  £4000  a  year,  a  proportion  twelve 
times  less,  I  believe,  than  obtains  in  Scotland. 

"  There  are  three  pictures  in  the  school  of  Broglie  ;  one 
of  Jesus  Christ,  another  of  Louis  Philippe,  and  a  third  of 
the  Duke,  and  under  them  are  written  respectively  '  Vive 
Jesus  Christ  I'  '  Vive  le  Roi  I'  '  Vive  Due  de  Broglie  I'  ^  * 
They  took  leave  of  me  with  much  kindness  ;  and  I  even 
have  the  fondness  to  think,  with  some  feeling.  I  myself 
felt  much  ;  and  I  pray  for  God's  best  blessing  on  the  heads 
of  all  whom  I  met  in  that  abode  of  elegant  and  lettered 
hospitality." 

Leaving  Broglie,  they  proceeded  to  Alen^on.  "  The  va- 
riety and  amount  of  sweet  and  engaging  landscape  as  we 
pass  along  quite  baffling.  A  church  to  the  right,  another 
to  the  left,  another  onward,  projected  on  the  sky.  The  suc- 
cession of  loveliness  prodigious.  I  now  understand  the  beauty 
of  Normandy."  At  Lemans,  the  cathedral  attracted  his 
attention,  and  the  most  minute  description  is  given  of  it. 
■'  On  the  whole,  a  first-rate  cathedral,  and  the  most  mem- 
orable of  them  all."  Having  reached  the  J^oire  at  Tours, 
they  ascended  by  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  crossing  it  to 
visit  the  two  celebrated  chateaux  of  Amboise  and  Chenon- 
ceaux,  both  rich  in  historic  recollections.  Long  ere  they 
reached  Orleans,  the  two  towers  of  its  massive  cathedral 
were  visible.  "  The  approach  to  Orleans,  marked  by  many 
good  houses,  and  the  egress  from  it  in  like  manner,  but  with 


JE.T.5S.  ORLEANS  AND  FONTAINEBLEAU.  71 

a  greater  amount  of  foliage,  and  verdure,  and  vineries,  which 
abound  in  the  neighborhood ;  but  within  two  or  three  miles, 
there  is  a  sudden  change  into  a  corn  country,  more  avail- 
able than  any  I  have  seen  for  the  supply  of  towns — great 
breadth  of  homogeneous  cultivation."  From  Orleans,  they 
took  the  road  to  Pithiviers  and  Malesherbes  ; — "  then  came 
to  the  characteristic  features  of  Fontainebleau  scenery  ;  rocks 
tumbled  about  in  profusion,  which  seem  to  have  been  rolled, 
fixed  now  in  the  earth,  and  rising  into  distinct  hillocks, 
which,  mingled  with  the  trees,  gives  a  Trosach  character  to 
the  approach,  were  it  not  for  the  amplitude  of  the  flat  cir- 
cular basin  through  which  we  pass.  Got  a  blow  on  my 
head  here,  which  I  desire  to  record  as  a  narrow  escape  and 
merciful  providence.  Had  my  position  been  half-an-inch 
different,  it  might  have  fractured  my  skull.  May  God 
cause  this  preservation  to  make  me  resolute  on  the  side  of 
holiness."  From  room  to  room  of  the  celebrated  palace  he 
wandered,  exhausting  every  epithet  of  wonder  and  admira- 
tion ;  pausing  on  the  steps  whence  Napoleon  took  his  last 
leave  of  Fontainebleau,  and  gazing  with  interest  on  "  the 
small  light  round  table  on  which  he  signed  the  abdication 
of  his  Crown."  The  variety  and  gorgeousness  of  the  apart- 
ments were  so  bewildering  that  at  last  he  has  to  say,  "Lost 
altogether  my  estimate  of  the  geometry  of  the  palace." 

On  returning  to  Paris,  and  looking  back  to  this  inland 
tour,  he  describes  it  as  "a  most  interesting  journey,  by  which 
my  opinion  of  the  actual  state  of  property  in  France,  and 
also  my  views  of  its  eventual,  have  been  made  more  favor- 
able. Much,  however,  must  be  left  to  time  and  experience. 
Have  been  greatly  enlightened  by  the  conversation  of  the 
Duke  de  Broglie." 

Not  many  months  after  his  return  to  Edinburgh  a  let- 
ter from  Mr.  Erskine  informed  Dr.  Chalmers  of  the  heavy 
domestic  bereavement  with  which  the  Duke  had  been  vis- 
ited. 


72  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHAL?^ERS.  1838. 

"  Edinburgh,  October  9th,  1838. 

"  My  dear  Sir — What  a  sad  event  this  death  of  the 
poor  Duchess  de  Broglie  I  I  have  ventured  to  write  the 
Duke  on  the  melancholy  bereavement  wherewith  he  has  been 
visited  ;  and  indeed  nothing  but  the  sense  of  its  presump- 
tuousness  restrained  me  from  sending  a  letter  of  acknowl- 
edgement to  Broglie  for  all  the  kindness  by  which  I  felt 
myself  so  much  honored  during  our  sojourn  there — far  the 
most  brilliant  passage  of  my  excursion  to  France,  but  now 
sadly  overcast  by  an  event  so  unlooked  for  and  solemnizing 
to  us  all. 

"  You  mention  in  your  letter  that  our  dear  departed 
friend  was  to  have  written  me.  I  have  received  no  letter 
from  her  ;  but  let  me  hope  that  our  next  communion  will  be 
in  heaven. 

"  I  shall  address  this  letter  to  Geneva,  where  I  presume 
you  are,  and  where  it  is  probable  you  will  be  in  communi- 
cation with  Madame  de  Stael.  Let  her  know  how  deeply 
I  feel  this  heavy  stroke  ;  and  it  would  to  me  be  a  commu- 
nication from  yourself  of  greatest  interest,  if  you  could  in- 
form me  of  any  particulars,  not  only  respecting  the  death, 
but  respecting  the  surviving  relatives — the  Duke,  Madame 
de  Hassonville,  dear  little  Paul,  Madame  de  Stael,  and  in- 
deed any  of  the  people  whom  we  met  on  that  splendid  occa- 
sion, the  retrospect  of  which  is  now  so  overclouded  by  the 
extinction  from  earth  of  the  central  and  presiding  lustre 
that  so  brightened  the  days  of  our  abode  at  Broglie. — I  am, 
my  dear  Sir,  yours  most  affectionately, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  Thomas  Erskine,  Esq." 
The  letter  here  alluded  to  was  as  follows  :    . 

"  Edinburgh,  Octoher  8th,  1838. 
"  My  bear  and  much  honored  Duke — It  is  with  great 
hesitation  that  I  venture  to  intrude  on  the  sacredness  of  your 


MT.  58.    LETTER  TO  THE  DUKE  DE  BROGLIE.        73 

grief,  but  pray  to  be  indulged,  if,  for  the  relief  of  my  own 
feelings,  I  lay  before  your  Grace  the  expression  of  my  deepest 
sympathy  and  sorrow  on  the  heavy  bereavement  wherewith 
a  merciful  Providence  has  been  pleased  to  visit  you.  The 
event  is  indeed  a  most  solemnizing  one  to  us  all  :  Heaven 
grant  that  it  may  not  prove  overwhelming  to  you  ;  but  even 
in  this  the  day  of  your  severest  trial,  when  the  nearest  and 
dearest  of  all  earthly  relationships  is  broken  asunder,  may  your 
spirit  be  sanctified  and  sustained  by  the  comforts  of  religion, 
by  the  well-grounded  prospect  of  that  blissful  immortality 
where  all  suffering  and  separation  are  unknown. 

"  And  there  is  one  precious  alleviation  when  we  think  of 
her  who  lived  in  the  virtues  and  died  in  the  triumphs  of  the 
faith.  We  know  the  solidity  of  that  foundation  on  which 
her  hopes  were  laid,  and  withdrawing  our  affections  from  a 
world,  the  best  loved  objects  of  which  are  so  speedily  with- 
drawn from  us,  let  us  Henceforth  be  '  followers  of  them  who 
through  faith  and  patience  are  now  inheriting  the  promises.' 

"  In  the  Duchess  de  Broglie  I  have  lost  the  most  exalted 
and  impressive  of  all  the  acquaintances  I  had  made  for  many 
years. 

"  Her  kindness  during  the  few  days  I  lived  under  your 
hospitable  roof  will  never,  never  be  effaced  from  my  grateful 
recollection.  Her  conversation,  and,  above  all,  her  prayers 
poured  forth  in  the  domestic  circle,  and  which  at  the  time  of 
their  utterance,  fell  upon  my  ears  like  the  music  of  Paradise, 
have  left  a  fragrance  behind  them,  and  the  memory  of  them 
is  sweet. 

"Let  me  send  up  my  earnest  prayers  for  the  present  con- 
solation and  for  the  future  and  permanent  well-being  of  your 
desolated  family.  I  entreat  that  you  will  convey  the  assur- 
ances of  my  condolence  and  regard  to  the  Baroness  de  Has- 
sonville  and  to  the  Baroness  de  Stael.  My  heart  bleeds  for 
'  Paul,'  your  dear  little  boy  :  nor,  as  it  is  the  prerogative  of 
sensibility  to  be  unceremonious  and  unguarded,  will  I  dis- 
guise the  love  and  veneration  for  yourself  which  the  whole 

VOL.    IV. — D 


74  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  I83S. 

of  our  recent  intercourse  has  awakened  in  my  bosonn.  O 
may  we  '  so  number  our  days,  and  so  apply  our  hearts  unto 
wisdom/  that  we  and  our  famihes  may  at  length  sit  down 
together  amid  the  glories  of  our  Redeemer's  kingdom. — Ever 
believe  me,  my  dear  Duke,  yours  with  the  profoundest  sense 
of  attachment  and  esteem, 

*'  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  Monsiear,  Monsieur  le  Due  de  Broglie." 


CHAPTER  y. 

THE  SEVENTH  DECADE  OF  LIFE— LAST  EFFORTS  ON 
BEHALF  OF  CHURCH  EXTENSION  — PLAN  OF  MR. 
WILLIAM  CAMPBELL  — GREAT  NORTHERN  TOUR  — 
THE  GRAMPIANS— LOCH  EIRICHT— INVERNESS— TAR- 
BET  HOUSE— SKIBO  CASTLE— TEANINICH— CROMAR- 
TY—FALL  OF  FOYERS  — CATHEDRAL  OF  ELGIN— 
BANFF— THE  BULLER  OF  BUCHAN— HADDO  HOUSE- 
IN  VERCAULD— RESULTS  OF  CHURCH  EXTENSION. 

"  It  is  a  favorite  speculation  of  mine,"  says  Dr.  Chalmers, 
"  that  if  spared  to  sixty,  we  then  enter  on  the  seventh  de- 
cade of  human  life  ;  and  that  this,  if  possible,  should  be  turn- 
ed into  the  Sabbath  of  our  earthly  pilgrimage,  and  spent  sab- 
batically,  as  if  on  the  shore  of  an  eternal  world,  or  in  the 
outer  courts,  as  it  were,  of  the  temple  that  is  above — the 
tabernacle  in  heaven.  What  enamors  me  all  the  more  of 
this  idea,  is  the  retrospect  of  my  mother's  widowhood.  I 
long,  if  God  should  spare  me,  for  such  an  old  age  as  she  en- 
joyed, spent  as  if  at  the  gate  of  heaven,  and  with  such  a 
fund  of  inward  peace  and  hope  as  made  her  nine  years'  widow- 
hood a  perfect  feast  and  foretaste  of  the  blessedness  that  awaits 
the  righteous."  His  own  seventh  decade — the  wished  for 
Sabbath  of  his  earthly  pilgrimage — was  to  commence  on  the 
17th  of  March,  1840,  and  to  the  General  Assembly  of  that 
year  he  had  long  looked  forward  as  to  the  time  when  he  should 
withdraw  from  public  life.  Before  doing  so,  he  desired  to 
make  one  effort  more,  his  greatest  and  his  last,  on  behalf  of 
his  favorite  scheme.  "  And  now,"  says  he,  writing  to  Mrs. 
Chalmers,  soon  after  his  return  from  France,  "  as  to  ray  plan 
for  the  future,  which  is  shortly  as  follows  :  I  long  for  retire- 
ment from  public  business,  but  not  being  able  to  relinquish 
it  at  present,  my  purpose  is  to  earn  a  right  to  retire  by  the 


76  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

dedication  of  this  summer  and  the  next  to  Church  Extension 
in  the  country,  after  which  it  is  my  earnest  wish  and  firm 
intention  to  devolve  the  work  on  others."  This  plan  was 
announced  on  the  15th  August,  and  the  18th  witnessed  the 
commencement  of  its  execution.  On  that  day  he  began  a 
tour  through  the  southwestern  districts  of  Scotland,  in  the 
course  of  which  ten  Presbyteries,  embracing  170  clergymen, 
were  visited  ;  and  addresses  on  Church  Extension  were  de- 
livered in  Stranraer,  Wigton,  Greenock,  Dunoon,  Kilmar- 
nock, Ayr,  Paisley,  Dumbarton,  Hamilton,  Lanark,  and  Big- 
gar.  It  was  a  new  sphere  of  effort  which  Dr.  Chalmers  had 
now  entered.  He  was  unpracticed  in  extemporary  speaking ; 
and  yet,  without  a  considerable  admixture  of  this  form,  he 
found  that  he  could  not  adapt  himself  to  the  varied  and  pro- 
miscuous audiences  which  he  addressed.  He  had  never  taken 
part  in  any  platform  discussion,  yet  in  such  public  meetings 
as  he  now  undertook  to  address,  hostile  collisions  might  oc- 
cur. But  he  would  do  all,  and  dare  all,  for  a  cause  that 
was  so  dear.  Speaking  of  one  of  his  addresses,  about  which 
he  had  been  somewhat  apprehensive  beforehand,  he  says  : 
"  There  were  a  good  many  Voluntaries  and  common  people 
there  ;  and  knowing  this  to  be  a  Badical  place,  I  made  a 
special  effort  to  get  at  the  popular  heart  and  understanding, 
and  so  availed  myself  of  certain  homely  statements,  which 

were  possibly  too  much  for  sentimental  G and  superfine 

A but  which  I  had  occasionally  repeated  before  in  a 

series  of  addresses,  by  which  our  cause  had  been  borne  in 
safety,  even  in  triumph,  through  the  worst  and  m.ost  dis- 
affected regions  in  Scotland.  It  is  true  that  it  were  bet- 
ter if  we  lived  in  times  when  a  calm  and  sustained  argu- 
mentation from  the  press  would  have  carried  the  influential 
mind  of  the  community.  But  as  it  is,  one  must  accommo- 
date his  doings  to  the  circumstances  of  the  age."  Having 
laid  his  hand  upon  a  new  instrument,  a  new  object  of  effort 
was  now  presented  to  him.  The  Assembly's  Committee  over 
which  he  presided,  had  too  limited  a  sum  at  its  command  to 


JET.  59.  PLAN  OF  MR.  CAMPBELL.  77 

allow  of  its  doing  more  than  contribute  seven  shillings  and 
sixpence  per  sitting,  or  about  one-fourth  part  of  the  cost  of 
each  new  erection.  By  much  the  larger  portion  of  the  out- 
lay was  contributed  by  those  living  in  the  district  where  the 
church  was  raised.  The  new  churches  were  built,  therefore, 
only  where  a  large  amount  of  local  sensibility  to  the  spiritual 
destitution  existed ;  and  along  with  this,  a  large  amount  of 
willingness  and  ability  to  relieve  it.  Those  neighborhoods 
came  to  be  helped  first  which  were  the  most  willing  and  able 
to  help  themselves.  But  a  new  class  of  cases  came  before 
the  Committee  for  consideration — cases  of  deeper  and  more 
distressing  destitution — where  little  or  nothing  could  be  ex- 
pected from  local  efforts ;  and  where,  if  churches  were  to  be 
built  at  all,  the  whole  outlay  must  be  borne  by  the  Com- 
mittee itself,  or  at  least  where  its  rule  of  distribution  would 
require  to  be  reversed.  These  were  the  cases  which,  above 
all  others.  Dr.  Chalmers  desired  to  reach,  offering,  as  they 
did,  the  opportunity  for  such  purely  missionary  operations 
among  the  poorest  and  most  wretched  sections  of  the  com- 
munity. But  though  the  want  was  so  great  and  urgent, 
where  lay  the  means  of  relief  ?  The  remedy  was  suggested 
by  a  lay  member  of  the  Church,  one  who  has  ever  been  as 
prompt  in  doing  as  in  devising,  and  whose  name  takes  high 
and  honorable  place  in  the  annals  of  Christian  liberality. 
Mr.  William  Campbell,  of  Glasgow,  suggested  that  a  new 
fund  should  be  created,  especially  intended  to  meet  cases  of 
extreme  destitution  ;  and  that  this  fund  should  consist  of  con- 
tributions of  £l  or  upward,  for  each  of  the  next  hundred 
churches  that  should  be  built.  If  one  thousand  such  sub- 
scribers could  be  obtained  in  Scotland,  then  one  thousand 
pounds,  a  sum  adequate  to  defray  the  whole  cost  of  the  edi- 
fice, would  be  available  for  each  of  the  new  buildings.  Mr. 
Campbell  himself  offered  £25  for  each  such  church,  coming 
thus  under  personal  obligation  for  £2500.  Dr.  Chalmers 
hailed  the  proposal  with  delight,  and  resolved  to  devote  the 
whole  summer  of  1839  to  an  effort  to  carry  it  into  execution. 


78  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839 

The  brief  interval  between  the  dose  of  the  College  session 
and  the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly,  was  filled  up  by 
visits  to  Dundee,  Perth,  Stirling,  and  Dunfermline.  The 
General  Assembly  was  scarcely  dissolved  when  he  resumed 
his  tour,  addressing  influential  audiences  at  Brechin,  Mon- 
trose, Arbroath,  and  making  his  way  to  Aberdeen,  where,  a 
peculiarly  brilliant  reception  was  given  to  him.^  His  pro- 
gress was  interrupted  by  a  summons  which  called  him  instantly 
to  London  ;  but  the  busy  and  anxious  negotiations,  in  which 
he  there  for  a  time  took  part,  directed  though  they  were  to  a 
new  and  most  embarrassing  subject,  did  not  divert  him  from 
his  summer  project,  for  again,  and  after  only  a  few  days  of 
rest  in  Edinburgh  on  his  return  from  the  metropolis,  we  find 
him  setting  out  on  what  he  called  his  great  northern  tour. 
That  tour  is  chronicled  with  unparalleled  minuteness  of  de- 
tail as  to  place,  and  person,  and  incident.  From  the  journal- 
letters  in  which  this  chronicle  survives,  we  could  fill  two 
hundred  pages  of  this  volume  ;  and  perhaps  when  it  has  ac- 
quired the  character  of  the  antique,  the  Wodrow  Society  of 
some  future  generation  may  take  pleasure  in  presenting  it  to 
the  public.  Even  now,  as  they  are  almost  the  last  of  the 
kind  that  remain,  and  as  they  carry  us  to  a  hitherto  un- 
trodden region,  we  are  tempted  to  ofier  to  the  reader  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  from  these  letters  : 

"  Inverness,,  August  1  bth,  1839 — My  very  dear  HelexV. 
— Kept  inside  two  stages  farther,  at  Blair  Athol.  Missed 
the  full  view  of  a  deal  of  beauty  in  consequence  ;  and  as  it 
was  now  fairing,  the  outsiders  had  fairly  the  advantage  of  us. 
Meanwhile,  we  below  were  very  restless,  shooting  out  our 
heads  from  side  to  side,  like  chickens  stretching  their  necks 
out  of  a  crib  ;  and  were  particularly  excited  by  the  time  we 
got  to  Killiecrankie — the  wooded  and  precipitous  pass  of 
which  is  a  noble  display  of  Trosach  scenery,  the  river  Garry 
forcing  its  way  through  the  rocks  at  the  bottom  of  the  rav- 

*  For  an  admh-able  account  of  this  visit  to  Aberdeen,  written,  I  be- 
lieve,  by  D.  Masson,  Esq.,  see  Lowes  Magazine^  vol.  v.  p.  29. 


.«T.  59,  THE  GARRY  AND  TUMMEL.  79 


ine.  Was  particularly  struck  with  the  cottage  ornee,  occu- 
pied by  Mrs.  Hay  of  Seggieden,  with  the  beautiful  new  church 
she  has  raised,  and  which  supplies  a  graceful  moral  associa- 
tion to  the  landscape.  At  Blair  Inn,  sixteen  miles  from 
Dunkeld,  I  gave  Dr.  Nichol  my  place,  and  took  his  outside, 
behind  the  driver.  We  had  passed  Moulin  upon  the  Tum.- 
mel,  Dr.  Duff's  native  parish,  by  which  I  was  interested. 
And  being  now  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Highlands,  I  had  all 
my  eyes  about  me,  right  and  left ;  and  accordingly  heard  with 
the  greatest  interest  that  the  Tilt,  which  we  crossed,  and 
which  runs  into  the  Garry,  then  into  the  Tummel,  came 
from  a  region  far  out  of  sight,  and  down  Glen-Tilt.  Then 
prosecuting  the  drive  up  this  Garry,  we  got  at  length  to  its 
source,  named  Loch  Garry.  By  this  time  we  had  passed 
Dalnacardoch,  which  was  the  next  stage  from  Blair.  The 
mountains  here  devoid  of  character  and  marked  individuality 
— long  shelving  ridges,  and  which  presented  a  different  as- 
pect from  that  of  a  magnificent  elevated  barrier,  which  I  had 
all  along  conceived  the  Grampians  to  be.  However,  it  is 
good  to  have  one's  notions  corrected  ;  and  I  confess  myself 
to  be  nearly  as  much  on  edge  after  novelties  for  the  purpose 
of  geographical  truth,  as  for  the  purpose  of  a  spectacle  ;  and  I 
even  was  very  glad  to  take  these  Grampian  swells,  which  I 
had  formerly  imagined  to  be  so  many  noble  Alpine  elevations, 
just  as  I  found  them.  Between  Dalnacardoch  and  Dalwhin- 
nie,  the  next  stage,  there  is  what  T  would  like  you  to  under- 
stand as  the  water-shed — that  is,  the  place  in  the  road  where 
the  water  on  this  side  ran  south  past  your  brother-in-law's, 
by  Dundee,  and  to  the  mouth  of  the  Tay  ;  and  where  the 
water  on  the  other  side  ran  north  into  the  Spey,  and  emptied 
itself  into  the  ocean,  more  than  a  hundred  miles  away  from 
the  other  water,  that  fell  one  mile  farther  south.  At  this 
place — the  water-shed — the  summit  of  the  country,  its 
backbone,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  the  ridge  from  which  the 
river  falls  on  opposite  sides,  like  the  opposite  sides  of  the  roof 
of  a  house — this  hne,  I  say,  separates  the  two  counties  of 


80  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  183&. 

Perth  and  Inverness.      Near  this  place  had  the  view  of  a 

small  part  of  the  end  of  Loch  Eiricht ;  and  I  do  not  know 
if  I  can  make  myself  understood  or  sympathized  with,  but 
just  imagine  of  this  said  loch,  that  I  am  told  of  its  being  fif- 
teen miles  long,  stretching  through  wild  and  solitary  valleys 
the  whole  of  this  length,  skirted  on  both  sides  with  mount- 
ains unknown  to  observation,  and  of  which  fancy  is  left  to 
conceive  their  grouping  and  their  forms  ;  and  I  ask  if  this  be 
not  an  object  fitted  to  excite  the  feehngs,  when  one  tries  to 
figure  how  it  is  that  the  mysterious  interior  of  this  long- 
withdrawing  solitude  is  fitted  and  filled  up.  And  on  the 
subject  of  this  said  boundary  between  these  two  shires,  I 
have  only  farther  to  remark,  that  on  the  left  of  our  road  there 
lies  a  hill  on  this  side  called  the  'Sow  of  AthoU,'  and  on  the 
other  side  a  hill  called  the  '  Boar  of  Badenoch ;'  Atholl 
being  the  Perthshire  district  which  we  left,  and  Badenoch 
the  Inverness-shire  district  which  we  entered.  I  really  felt 
grateful  to  the  driver  for  this  piece  of  information,  by  which 
he  introduced  me  to  an  acquaintance  with  the  Sow  and  the 
Boar.  Got  to  Dalwhinnie  after  five,  where  we  swallowed  a 
rapid  dinner.  This  the  farthest  place  from  the  sea  in  Scot- 
land ;  and  about  the  highest  house  in  it ;  again  mounted 
outside  for  two  stages  farther  ;  that  is,  to  Pitmain  or  Kin- 
gussie and  Aviemore.  Much  pleased  with  an  opening  pro- 
spect to  Laggan  and  the  hills  of  Corryarrick,  which  guided 
me  onward  in  thought  to  Fort-Augustus.  I  at  one  time 
thought  of  making  a  detour  that  way  to  Inverness  ;  but  felt 
that  it  would  not  be  safe.  Seven  miles  from  Dalwhinnie, 
we  descend  to  a  scenery  of  Trosach  character,  down  the 
Truim,  which  runs  into  the  Spey,  one  of  the  longest  rivers 
in  Scotland,  and  along  which  we  went  downward,  through 
a  country  gradually  improving  in  cultivation  and  fertility. 
On  looking  back  was  presented  with  a  glorious  medley  of 
crags  and  mountain  tops.  Interested  by  Kingussie,  where 
lives  an  admirable  clergyman,  Mr.  Shepherd,  known  to  me 
by   correspondence,    but    not    personally.      On  my  way  to 


iET.  59.  INVERNESS.  81 

Aviemore,  the  twilight  became  fainter,  and  I  could  scarcely 
descry  the  hills  in  the  distance  ;  but  was  exceedingly  de- 
lighted by  Cairngorm  and  Ben  Macdhui,  the  highest  hill  in 
Scotland,  being  pointed  out  to  me  in  the  south — thus  con- 
necting the  geography  of  the  Spey  with  that  of  the  Dee. 
Got  inside  at  Aviemore,  thirty  miles  from  Inverness, 

"  Friday,  16th. — The  town  handsome  and  respectable. 
The  environs  superb  ;  and  I  wonder  that  I  had  never  met 
with  any  celebration  of  what  appears  to  me  to  be  scenery  of 
a  very  high  order. 

"  Saturday,  17th. — Took  boat  at  Invergordon  Ferry. 
Honest  Garment  had  been  looking  out  for  us  a  long  time. 
The  ferry  is  two  miles  across  ;  and  he  came  in  a  boat  from 
the  Invergordon  side,  and  met  us  half  way.  We  identified 
him  at  some  distance,  standing  up,  with  his  portly  figure, 
and  his  ample  plaid  spread  out  like  a  main-sail  when  he  ex- 
tended his  arms.  Delighted  with  my  drive  along  the  north 
bank  of  the  Bay  of  Cromarty.  At  the  opening  of  the  bay 
are  two  elevated  ridges,  which  approach  each  other,  and 
form  its  two  opposite  points,  called  the  '  Sutors  of  Cromarty.' 
Went  about  six  miles  through  a  cultivated  country,  and 
landed  at  Tarbet  House,  the  mansion  of  Mr.  Hay  Mac 
kenzie  of  Cromarty.  Mrs.  Hay  Mackenzie,  the  daughter 
of  Sir  James  Gibson-Craig,  a  very  agreeable  person — ex- 
ceedingly like  her  father  in  the  face.  Lord  and  Lady  Hard- 
wicke  are  guests  here — he  a  naval  officer,  and  most  intel- 
ligent person,  who  succeeded  to  his  uncle,  the  family  name 
being  Yorke — she,  the  sister  of  Lady  Normanby,  but  of 
decided  Conservative  principles,  as  her  husband  and  all  are 
here.  She  exceedingly  gracious  and  pleasant ;  a  fine  speci- 
men of  the  English  lady,  and  one  of  the  most  marvelous 
singers  I  ever  heard. 

•'  Mo7iday,  19th. — Prepared  for  my  Tain  address,  which 
I  delivered  to  a  full  audience  of  upward  of  a  thousand — a 
marvelous  day  meeting  in  so  small  a  place  ;  and  the  dinner 
party  of  eighty  still  more  marvelous.      Was  received  with 


82  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

true  Highland  affection  by  Mrs.  Mackintosh,  the  widow  of 
old  Dr.  Angus  Mackintosh,  former  minister  of  this  place, 
and  a  person  of  great  and  distinguished  worth.  Much 
pleased  with  the  antique  and  simple  air  of  the  Town  of 
Tain. 

"  Tuesday,  20th. — Rode  up  the  south  coast  of  Dornoch 
Frith  ;  truly  delightful.  Across  the  firth  could  see  Skibo 
Castle,  the  chief  mansion  of  Mr.  Dempster  ;  and,  what  to 
me  was  very  interesting,  saw  on  the  opposite  bank  the 
church  of  Criech  where  Mrs.  Parker's  father  Mr.  Pvainy 
was  minister,  and  the  manse  where  Mrs.  Parker  was  born. 
Saw  also  with  great  interest  before  us  on  the  far  west,  the 
distant  hill  of  Ben  More  Assynt,  the  highest  in  Sutherland, 
and  which  brought  me  into  contact  with  the  northwest  of 
Scotland.  After  crossing  at  Bonar  Bridge,  we  were  in 
Sutherlandshire  ;  and  now  I  may  say  that  I  have  been  in 
every  Scotch  county  in  the  island  of  Great  Britain  except 
Caithness,  and  every  English  county  except  Cornwall.  Mr. 
Dempster's  shooting  lodge  is  two  miles  farther  up  than 
Bonar  Bridge.  Took  the  most  interesting  walk  I  have  yet 
had,  in  respect  both  of  scenery  and  of  geographical  observa- 
tion, Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dempster  along  with  me,  on  a  hill  be- 
hind their  house.  I  can  not  express  the  satisfaction  I  felt 
in  having  my  eye  brought  into  converse  with  objects  so  near 
to  the  northwest  corner  of  the  island,  and  themselves  com- 
posing the  main  features  of  a  region  before  unknown. 

"  Teaninich,  August  22d,  1839. — Went  two  or  three 
miles  along  the  south  side  of  Dornoch  Frith,  where  we  struck 
ofT  to  the  right,  away  from  the  road  which  leads  to  Tain, 
and  across  an  elevated  region  that  separates  the  Dornoch  and 
Cromarty  Friths.  Passed  through  a  series  of  mountain  soli- 
tudes. At  length  descended,  and  at  fourteen  miles  from  Bal- 
blair  reached  the  Slethenburn  Inn,  where  General  Munro's 
carriage  was  waiting.  The  name  of  his  place  is  Teaninich. 
He  himself  is  a  fine  old  veteran  of  sixty  ;  has  been  much  in 
the  East  Indies,  and  seems  to  have  brought  home  with  him 


MT.  59.  TEANINICH.— INVERNESS.  83 

from  Madras  a  portion  of  the  Christian  spirit  which  is  prev- 
alent among  certain  of  the  society  there.  His  lady  in  this 
respect  kindred  with  himself  After  tea  two  boys  of  the 
family  came  to  us  in  splendid  Highland  dresses,  the  Gener- 
al's sons,  of  eleven  and  thirteen,  of  whom  I  pray  that,  under 
'the  tuition  of  their  mother,  who  combines  the  Christian  with 
the  feminine,  they  may  escape  the  pollution  of  an  evil  world. 
She  is  Irish,  and  the  daughter  of  a  clergyman.  Went  to 
bed  about  eleven,  with  the  feeling  after  ail  that,  however 
pleasant  this  life  of  variety,  and  though  much  among  Chris- 
tian people  in  the  prosecution  of  a  Christian  object,  home 
and  regularity  and  moderate  exertion  supply  a  far  better  con- 
dition for  the  health  of  the  soul  and  its  growth  in  holiness. 

"  Friday,  2od. — I  gave  my  address  at  Cromarty,  after 
having  been  ushered  in  with  an  admirable  prayer  by  Mr. 
Stewart,  who  is  really  a  person  of  admirable  sense  and  talent 
too.  When  I  began  the  people  greatly  interested,  and  the 
minister  I  saw  smiling  and  smerkling,  in  his  own  character- 
istic way,  at  the  more  ludicrous  passages.  I  had  no  idea 
of  this  being  so  primitive  and  sequestered  a  place. 

"  Wednesday,  28th. — A  rather  large  and  fatiguing  party; 
and  some  of  them  had  the  tone  and  manner  of  commonplace 
religious  society.  One  lady  asked  me  if  I  was  proud  or  if  I 
was  humble,  in  the  idea,  I  have  no  doubt,  that  the  admir- 
ation of  her,  and  such  as  she,  must  prove  a  sore  trial  to  my 
vanity.  My  reply  was,  that  I  was  somewhat  short  in  the 
temper,  under  the  fatigues  and  annoyances  to  which  I  was 
occasionally  exposed  in  my  public  labors. 

"  Inver7iess,  Thursday,  29th. — The  public  meeting  took 
place  this  day  ;    a  full  church. 

''Friday,  30th. — A  public  breakfast  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty.  The  result  of  our  operations  amounts  to  the  aston- 
ishing sum  of  £2000,  a  sum  which,  if  carried  out  propor- 
tionally to  Inverness,  would  realize  £400,000  in  the  whole 
of  Scotland.  Inverness  stands  now  at  the  head  of  the  Sup- 
plementary Fund.      The  Provost,  on  our  breaking  up,  told 


84  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

me  that  nothing  could  exceed  the  impression  which  had  been 
made  in  favor  of  our  cause. 

"  On  driving  along  the  north  bank  of  Loch  Ness  the  most 
striking  feature  is  the  steep  and  lofty  bank  on  our  right  hand, 
shooting  up  into  crags  and  precipices,  and  exhibiting  all  that 
is  noble  in  rock  scenery.  Our  road  often  cut  out  from  the 
•lifF,  and  protected  by  a  parapet,  to  keep  us  from  falling  into 
the  lake  beneath.  Pveached  the  mouth  of  Glen  Urquhart, 
through  which  the  Endrick  runs  from  the  north,  and  dis- 
charges its  waters  into  Loch  Ness.  Most  beautiful  land- 
scape, and  well  denominated  the  Tempe  of  Scotland,  enrich- 
ed by  wood,  and  diversified  by  slopes  and  swells  in  every 
variety.  Landed  at  the  House  of  Foyers,  possessed  by  Mr. 
Frazer,  an  old  gentleman  of  eighty,  and  proprietor  of  the 
estate  in  which  the  fall  is.  Under  the  guidance  of  Mr. 
Frazer,  a  preacher,  I  first  crossed  the  river,  walked  up  its 
east  side,  saw  the  falls  from  two  successive  points,  a  higher 
and  a  lower.  In  the  last  position  the  spray  fell  upon  us  as 
in  a  dense  shower  of  rain.  There  was  about  the  average 
quantity  of  water  ;  and  it  is  far  the  most  magnificent  thing 
of  the  kind  I  had  ever  witnessed.  Not  so  lofty  as  the  falls 
that  mamma  and  I  saw  in  South  Wales,  but  of  far  greater 
weight  and  momentum  ;  a  good  hearty  thud,  and  in  perfect 
contrast  to  the  mutchkin  fall  that  descended  at  one  time  on 
mamma's  head.  If  she  wanted  enough  of  it  she  would  have 
had  it  here  to  her  heart's  content.  The  lower  point  of  view 
is  on  the  extremity  of  a  projecting  ridge,  where  there  is  a 
most  impressive  view  of  the  rocks  on  both  sides,  comprising, 
I  imagine,  Coleridge's  ante-chamber  to  the  fall,  though  this 
is  not  perfectly  clear,  for  the  banks  are  precipitous  to  nearly 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  which  sinks  so  much  as  to  afford  a 
suite  of  ante-chambers.  And,  besides,  on  ascending  further, 
to  the  upper  fall,  of  much  less  consequence  than  the  first, 
we,  above  all,  came  to  a  beautiful  amphitheatre  of  level 
fields,  skirted  all  round  by  rocky  elevations,  and  giving  rise 
to  a  beauteous  little  panorama,  which,  if  Coleridge  came  to 


MT.59.  THE  PASS  OF  INVERFARIGAG.  85 

Foyers  from  Fort-Augustus,  he  behooved  to  pass  through 
first,  and  which  might,  therefore,  for  aught  I  know,  be  his 
ante-chamber. 

"  Saturday,  Z\st. — Proceeded  along  the  south  bank  of 
Loch  Ness.  Struck  off  for  a  mile  along  the  pass  of  Inver- 
farigag.  Such  a  scene  of  desolate  and  savage  grandeur  as 
T  never  before  witnessed  ;  rocks  on  rocks  in  glorious  confu- 
sion, and  where  one  might  fancy  himself  not  in  the  midst 
of  a  world,  but  in  the  midst  of  a  chaos.  Saw  an  opening 
which  led  to  the  beautiful  amphitheatre  above  the  Falls. 
Coleridge  must  not  have  seen  this  marvelous  scene,  else  he 
would  not  have  singled  out  the  ante-chamber  of  the  Falls 
of  Foyers  as  one  of  the  five  good  things  in  Scotland,  for  In- 
verfarigag,  for  wild  and  primeval  majesty,  is  far  beyond  it. 
On  this  road  Mr.  Frazer  pointed  out  the  birth-place  of  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  at  Aldowrie,  which  Mrs.  Rich  lately 
visited,  and  wept  over  with  great  emotion.  A  noble  object 
Fort  George,  being  the  most  complete  fortification  in  Scot- 
land. Had  an  interesting  view  of  the  opposite  plains  on  the 
Moray  Frith,  formerly  visited  by  me  along  the  shores  of  the 
Black  Island.  Landed  in  the  chaplain's.  Drove  into  Nairn, 
which  we  reached  at  five.  Dined  with  the  Presbytery  and 
a  few  of  the  principal  citizens.  Han  down  to  the  shore,  for 
a  view  of  the  town  and  harbor.  Met,  scrambling  along 
the  boats,  the  celebrated  James  Mitchell,  of  whom  Dugald 
Stewart  has  written  a  memoir.  He  is  deaf,  dumb,  and 
blind,  and  the  state  of  his  mind,  with  such  few  remaining 
inlets,  is  quite  a  study  for  the  philosopher.  I  shook  hands 
and  hurrahed  to  him  with  great  delight,  when  I  learned  it 
was  he,  to  the  surprise  of  my  companions.  Addressed  a  full 
meeting  at  Nairn  on  Saturday  evening. 

''Monday,  September  2d,  1839. — Mr,  Banbury  drove 
me  to  Forres.  The  country  brightens  and  beautifies  even 
beyond  the  scenery  at  Auldearn ;  and  little  do  we  Southrons 
expect  in  this  far  north  region  a  succession  of  landscapes  so 
bland,  and  soft,  and  fertile,  as  much  so  as  we  meet  in  very 


86  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

many  of  the  counties  in  the  central  or  southern  parts  of  En- 
gland. At  length  crossed  the  Findhorn  by  a  new  suspen- 
sion bridge,  and  have  seen  few  scenes  so  beautiful  as  the 
approach  to  Forres,  with  its  two  graceful  spires,  and  the 
fine  knolls  that  adorn  its  southern  environ.  I  addressed  a 
full  church,  and  siested,  as  usual,  and  dined  in  a  party  of 
seventy.  The  speeches  admirable,  more  especially  those  of 
Mr.  Buchanan  and  Mr.  Bruce  of  Kennet,  who  was  really 
eloquent.  It  must  not  be  disguised  that  the  landed  men  of 
Morayshire,  taken  as  a  whole,  are  passionately  and  inveter- 
ately  opposed  to  us.  Visited  the  site  of  the  castle  where 
Duncan  is  said  to  have  been  murdered  by  Macbeth,  and 
which  is  the  undoubted  scene  of  other  noted  events  in  his- 
tory. This  country  is  the  theatre  of  Shakspeare's  Macbeth ; 
and  there  are  several  places  which  claim  a  special  property 
in  his  celebrated  witches.  The  environs  of  Elgin  of  a  very 
superior  cast,  finely  diversified,  and  acquiring  a  character 
of  enhanced  importance  from  the  number  of  its  architectural 
elevations.  Went  between  ten  and  eleven  to  the  ruins  of 
the  cathedral,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Walker  and  others.  The 
finest  remains  of  antiquity  in  Scotland,  St.  Andrews  nothing 
to  them  ; — they  are  not  so  large  certainly,  but  a  far  greater 
and  more  picturesque  variety.  Excavated  lately,  and  ex- 
hibiting such  a  floor  as  our  own  ;  but  far  more  numerous 
fragments  of  wall,  and  more  than  ten  times  the  amount  of 
rich  workmanship,  with  a  large  outline  of  both  transepts, 
numerous  windows,  parts  of  interior  arches,  whole  arcades, 
a  chapel  and  fine  chapter-house,  supported  on  a  single  cen- 
tral column,  and  quite  entire,  all  composing  a  greatly  fuller 
skeleton  of  what  it  was  than  we  have  at  St.  Andrews. 
Some  remains  of  pilasters  of  particularly  rich  workmanship. 
The  east  window  exhibits  a  double  row  of  old  English 
arches.  On  the  west  side  there  are  two  towers,  one  of 
which  we  ascended  by  a  stair  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  steps, 
where  we  had  a  command  of  the  town  and  country.  On 
descending,  I  surrounded  the  cathedral,  and  enjoyed  exceed- 


^T.  59.  DINNER  AT  ELGIN.  87 

ingly  the  various  oblique  and  direct  views  which  we  had  of 
its  external  parts.  The  Fall  of  Foyers  and  Cathedral  of 
Elgin  are  the  two  best  things  I  have  seen  in  this  journey. 
Went  to  the  noble,  new,  and  very  handsome,  but  withal 
greatly  too  large  church,  holding  not  less  than  eighteen  hun- 
dred people,  yet  full  notwithstanding.  Never  felt  myself  at 
greater  ease  and  liberty,  and  am  told  that  I  never  was  in 
greater  force.  To  understand  the  scene  which  followed,  you 
must  know  that  Elgin  Presbytery  is  leavened  with  moder- 
ation, there  being  none  but  Mr.  Topp  and  Mr.  Gentle  who 
go  with  us  in  the  Non-intrusion  question ;  and  perhaps  none 
but  them  that  go  cordially  into  the  object  of  church  exten- 
sion. With  these  premises  in  your  mind,  understand  you 
that  we  had  a  public  dinner,  in  a  very  handsome  public 
hall ;  that  we  numbered  upward  of  fifty  ;  that  the  party 
was  highly  respectable  ;  that  Admiral  Duff,  a  truly  good 
man,  and  one  of  our  hundred  pounders,  was  in  the  chair  ; 
that  on  his  left  hand  was  Rear- Admiral  M'Kay,  brother  to 
Lord  Reay  ;  that  at  the  foot  of  the  table  was  the  county 
sheriff,  and  a  goodly  number  both  of  clergy  and  of  respect- 
able citizens.  Yet,  with  all  these  materials  for  a  cordial 
meeting,  there  was  not  one  response  of  enthusiastic  feeling  to 
a  single  sentiment  that  was  uttered  ;  that  my  first  speech, 
a  very  fair  one,  fell  still-born  from  my  lips  ;  that  in  my 
second,  when  I  attempted,  with  great  and  graphic  power,  to 
portray  the  beauties  of  their  country  and  their  town,  a  few 
faint  echoes  of  applause  were  all  which  I  could  elicit ;  that 
Mr.  Buchanan,  powerful  and  felicitous  as  he  always  is,  and 
particularly  was  on  this  occasion,  spoke  with  an  utterance 
which  only  played  buff  upon  them  ;  that  when  Messrs. 
Lewis,  Noble,  and  Cochran  took  up  the  tale,  it  told  no  more 
on  the  audience  than  it  would  have  done  upon  a  clay-dyke  ; 
all  symptomatic  of  the  apathetic  region  and  atmosphere  which 
had  been  created  here  under  the  tender  reign  of  moderation. 
But  most  decisive  of  all,  and  before  the  toasts  had  nearly 
run  out,  at  least  one  half  of  the  whole  party  at  the  lower 


88  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

end,  by  a  simultaneous  movement,  made  off  from  the  table, 
and  left  the  eminentes  of  the  upper  half  lo  themselves,  to  the 
evident  confusion  and  distress  of  our  chairman,  and  the  no 
less  obvious  indignation  of  Mr.  Buchanan.  For  myself,  I 
was  greatly  more  amused  than  annoyed,  and  philosophized 
on  the  suddenness  of  the  transition  from  one  Presbytery  to 
another,  as  also  on  the  great  power  of  clergymen  who  could 
nioculate  others  so  with  their  own  prevalent  feeling  as  to 
make  it  the  prevalent  feeling  of  their  neighborhood  also. 
Have,  nevertheless,  got  <£300  subscribed  for  at  Elgin  ;  and 
so  I  went  to  bed  about  eleven. 

"  Tuesday,  Septeynber  10  th. — Got  to  Banff.  It  is  quite  a 
gem  of  a  town.  Altogether  it  is  a  very  perfect  and  beautiful 
composition  ;  and  there  is  a  reigning  gentility,  or  what  the 
English  would  call  tidiness,  which  pervades  every  thing — the 
harbor,  the  walks,  the  streets,  the  houses,  and,  above  all,  the 
charming  burial-place,  full  of  the  most  tasteful  monuments, 
inclosed  with  lofty  walls,  decorated  with  ivy,  and  present- 
ing in  its  fragments  of  old  architecture — the  remains  of  a 
former  church — a  very  antique  and  imposing  appearance. 
The  present  church  has  been  altogether  removed  from  it ;  and 
embowered  among  its  ivied  tombstones,  I  could  spend  whole 
forenoons  with  delight  in  a  retirement  so  full  of  solemn  and 
affecting  interest.  To  me  it  is  a  far  more  tasteful  cemetery 
than  the  '  Pere  la  Chaise'  of  Paris.  A  full  church,  and  an 
address  of  two  hours.  Then  a  siesta  ;  then  a  public  dinner 
of  about  fifty. 

"  Thursday,  Septeniber  12th. — Addressed  upward  of  a 
thousand  people  at  Peterhead. 

"  Friday,  Sejytember  13th. — Left  the  coast  somewhat  on 
our  left,  though  we  had  occasional  glimpses  of  very  beautiful 
rock.  Soon  recovered  it  at  the  far-famed  Buller  of  Buchan. 
Fell  in  with  fishermen,  who  said  that  it  was  quite  a  day  for 
the  boat.  My  heart  leaped  for  joy  at  the  achievement  of  get- 
ting inside  of  the  Buller — so  rare,  that  even  Mr.  Philip,  the 
parish  minister,  had  never  been  there,  and  Mr.   Robertson, 


^T.  59.  THE  BULLER  OF  BUCHAN.  89 

of  the  neighboring  parish,  only  once.  So  we  scooted  down 
the  brae,  launched  the  boat,  manned  it  with  four  hands, 
and  committed  ourselves  to  the  waves,  which  were  moderate 
enough  to  admit  of  the  enterprise,  for  it  is  only  safe  in  calm 
weather.  The  rock  scenery,  irrespective  of  the  Buller,  is  su- 
perb, bulging  out  into  buttresses,  or  retiring  into  creeks,  and 
altogether  comprising  the  most  variegated  and  rugged  outline 
I  had  seen  any  where.  Turned  south  to  the  Buller,  where 
we  were  presented  with  a  lofty  arch,  having  a  fine  massive 
bending  alcove,  and  leading  to  a  hollow  cylinder  with  the  sky 
overhead,  and  a  lofty  wall  of  precipice  all  round.  The  waves 
rise  higher  in  the  archway,  which  is  narrow,  insomuch  that 
our  gallant  crew  had  to  ply  their  boat-hooks  on  both  sides  to 
keep  us  off  the  rocks  :  but  got  at  length  into  the  bottom  of 
the  churn,  which  churns  nobly  in  a  storm,  and  causes  a  manu- 
facture of  yeast,  that  flies  in  light  frothy  balls  up  to  the  top 
of  the  caldron,  and  is  carried  off  through  the  country.  It  was 
calm  enough,  however,  now  to  admit  of  our  leisurely  contem- 
plation of  the  magnificent  alcove  into  which  we  had  gotten  ; 
and  after  glorying  in  our  exploit  for  some  minutes,  we  rowed 
and  boat-hooked  our  way  back  again.  Skirted  farther  south, 
among  the  projections  and  insular  rocks  between  us  and 
Slaines  Castle,  which  we  saw  at  the  distance  of  a  mile  or  so. 
Went  round  the  noble  rock  of  Dunbigh,  covered  with  sea- 
fowl,  some  of  which  were  seen,  adding  to  the  interest  of  the 
whole  spectacle  by  their  picturesque  forms.  Here  we  explored 
a  beautiful  recess,  and  looked  into  a  dark  viewless  cave  of 
unknowni  depth.  Rowed  back  to  our  old  landing-place,  recog- 
nizing the  Buller  as  we  passed.  We  also  saw  Buchan-Ness 
lighthouse  to  the  north,  and  were  told  of  Longhaven  between 
us  and  it  as  a  great  curiosity,  but  which  it  was  too  rough  to 
visit.  Our  landing-place  is  in  the  bottom  of  a  fine  rocky  bay, 
which  of  itself  was  worth  the  visiting  and  recording.  On 
ascending  the  brae,  went  to  the  top  of  the  Buller,  and  looked 
down  to  the  place  where  we  had  been  rolling  half  an  hour 
before.    With  the  exception  of  its  land  side,  there  is  a  narrow 


90  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

rim  all  round  it,  broadest  at  the  place  which  surmounts  the 
archway,  but  contracting  into  three  or  four  feet  at  other 
places,  and  wearing  away  at  one  part  into  the  most  ticklish 
step  of  all.  This  broad  rim  is  perpendicular  on  both  sides,  yet 
so  often  circumambulated,  even  by  ladies,  as  to  be  trodden 
into  a  foot-path.  I  had  the  greatest  desire  to  finish  my  con- 
quest of  the  BuUer,  by  following  in  the  footsteps  of  these 
heroines  ;  but  thought  of  prosaic  mamma,  and  made  a  virtue 
of  moderation.  Mr.  Robertson  says,  that  if  I  had  offered  to 
do  it,  he  would  have  laid  violent  hands  upon  me.  It  is,  in 
truth,  very  seldom  done  ;  though  the  last  Duke  of  Gordon 
but  one,  after  having  dined  at  Slaines  Castle,  is  said  to  have 
rode  round  it  on  horseback — a  truly  after-dinner  achievement. 
Rode  on  to  Slaines  Castle,  about  two  miles  off.  Lord  Errol, 
its  proprietor,  had  previously  asked  me  to  dine  there  yester- 
day ;  but  as  this  could  not  be,  I  offered  instead  to  call  on  him 
this  day.  He  and  the  Countess  received  us  most  cordially. 
She,  by  the  way,  was  a  Miss  Fitzclarence,  and  is  daughter 
to  the  late  William  IV.  She  bears  a  great  resemblance  to  the 
Royal  family,  and  is  withal  a  pious  person,  which  appeared 
indeed  in  her  conversation.  Lord  and  Lady  Errol  showed 
us  the  rooms  of  their  castle,  going  along  with  us  ;  and  no- 
thing could  exceed  the  blandness  and  perfect  nature  of  the 
whole  style  of  their  attentions  to  us.  It  is  a  most  singular 
place,  altogether  renewed  within  these  few  years  on  the  site 
of  the  preceding  castle,  a  mere  fragment  of  which  remains. 
It  consists  of  only  two  stories — one  sunk,  and  the  other  com- 
prising all  the  accommodation  of  the  members  of  the  family — 
spread  out,  therefore,  over  a  great  space,  and  shooting  upward 
into  a  number  of  cones  and  pinnacles.  It  is  built  close  upon 
the  edge  of  the  sea-rock,  insomuch  that  at  one  place  flush  with 
the  precipice  there  is  no  walking  round  it.  The  look-out  is  to 
me  most  interesting.  The  rocks  not  high  ;  but  having  more 
the  character  of  skellies  projecting  into  the  sea,  forming  a  num- 
ber both  of  creeks  and  promontories,  and  deriving  an  exquisite 
beauty,  first,  from  the  outline  of  separation  between  the  land 


^T.  59.  HADDO  HOUSE.  91 

and  water,  and  secondly,  from  the  vivid  contrast  of  the  rock 
with  grass  of  bright  verdure — it  being  the  grass  of  rich  and 
ornamental  cultivation.  Dr.  Johnson  was  here  in  the  time  of 
the  old  castle,  and  said,  that  if  you  want  to  enjoy  the  sublimity 
of  danger  without  its  exposure  you  should  sleep  at  Slaines  in 
a  storm.  The  roar  of  the  waters  is  very  noble,  though  the  in- 
mates from  custom  had  ceased  to  be  sensible  of  it ;  and  it  was 
quite  in  keeping  with  the  scene,  and  with  all  its  accompani- 
ments, that  there  occurred,  while  we  were  sitting  in  the  library, 
which  overhangs  the  beach,  a  very  brilliant  flash  of  lightning, 
followed  by  a  loud  peal  of  thunder.  It  is  a  fine  old  library, 
with  a  great  proportion  of  theology,  and  some  of  the  best 
editions  of  the  Fathers.  Another  drive  of  eight  miles  to 
Haddo  House,  Lord  Aberdeen's,  whither  I  and  Mr.  Robertson 
went  by  invitation.  Went  up  the  river  Ythan  which  runs  by 
Ellon,  a  small  village,  though  the  seat  of  a  Presbytery,  and 
got  on  through  a  prosaic  yet  cultivated  country  to  his  Lord- 
ship's, by  seven,  p.m.  His  Lordship  tells  me  that  the  Dean 
of  Faculty,  who  at  one  time  threatened  me  with  a  rod-in- 
pickle,  is  now  in  the  press  with  a  pamphlet  on  Church-mat- 
ters. His  Lordship  and  I,  as  well  as  Mr.  Robertson,  have 
had  much  talk  about  matters  ;  and  though  not  at  one,  I 
can  perceive  that  his  Lordship  is  very  desirous  of  an  adjust- 
ment, and  will  be  of  great  use,  I  doubt  not,  in  bringing  it 
about. 

"  Saturday,  September  14:th,  1839. — Walked  in  the 
grounds  with  Captain  Gordon,  who  laughs  at  a  Veto  without 
reasons,  and  is  hostile  to  the  Church  in  her  present  position. 
This  is  a  noble  place.  The  house  not  ornamental,  but  spacious, 
and  with  two  large  wings,  the  grandeur  of  the  whole  lying 
chiefly  in  its  magnitude.  A  noble  straight  avenue,  descending 
from  a  flight  of  stairs,  and  marked  by  ornamental  gateways 
at  intervals,  stretching  forward  with  an  amplitude  which  is 
quite  baronial ;  and  at  its  foot  having  a  beautiful  lake  on  the 
left  hand.  On  the  other  side  of  the  house  there  is  a  beauti* 
ful  wooded  undulation,  which  contrasts  well  with  the  flowery 


92  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

level  at  the  head  of  the  avenue.  Up  the  Ythaii  his  Lordship 
has  another  place,  called  the  Gight,  still  more  lovely  than  the 
one  1  am  describing,  but  which,  though  only  at  the  distance 
of  four  miles,  we  could  not  visit.  Took  leave  of  the  family  at 
eleven,  not  without  an  enhanced  respect  for  Lord  Aberdeen, 
whose  conversations,  and  whole  conduct,  have  given  me  a 
deeper  sense  than  ever  both  of  his  talents  and  worth.  He  has 
had  sad  work  lately  with  the  perverseness  of  the  people  of 
his  own  parish  threatening  to  veto  a  most  admirable  presentee. 
At  one  of  the  meetings  he  had  with  them  he  himself  open- 
ed with  prayer,  to  the  great  delight  of  all  the  good  in  this 
quarter.  Left  Ballater  between  three  and  four.  The  beauty 
of  the  afternoon,  and  the  glorious  beauty  of  the  landscapes, 
at  length  tempted  us  outside  ;  and  certainly  the  combined 
grandeur  and  richness  far  outstripped  all  that  we  have  yet 
met  with.  Along  the  banks  of  the  Dee,  for  twenty  miles  above 
Ballater,  there  is  one  continued  enamel  either  of  cultivation  or 
woodland,  while,  on  both  sides,  the  hills  rise  in  all  varieties  of 
form,  presenting  a  glorious  assemblage  of  crags  and  mountain- 
tops.  On  leaving  Ballater  we  were  at  once  in  the  midst  of 
fine  scenery,  but  much  enhanced  after  passing  the  bridge  of 
Ginn,  and  from  that  to  Mirven  a  fine  specimen  of  the  old 
Highland  clachan.  Then  on  the  opposite  side  are  the  house 
and  classic  'birks  of  Abergeldie,'  succeeded  by  the  kirk  of 
Crathie  on  this  side,  and  then  again  on  the  opposite  side  the 
house  of  Balmoral.  Here  the  scenery  is  superlative.  But 
the  crowning  glory  of  the  whole  is  Lochnagar,  surmounting 
all  the  hills  that  are  around  it,  and  now  made  immortal  by 
the  stanzas  of  Lord  Byron  on  this  noble  mountain. 

"  Wednesday,  Sept  ember  ISth,  1839. — At  breakfast  there 
came  a  polite  invitation  from  Mrs.  Farquharson  of  Inver- 
cauld,  to  stay  with  her  while  in  this  country.  Set  up  our 
can'iage  again  at  eleven.  Down  the  river  by  the  road  of 
yesterday.  Left  the  carriage  for  some  minutes  to  visit  the 
Castle  of  Braemar,  built  about  a  century  ago  to  overawe  the 
rebels,  and  still  the  property  of  Government.      Entered  all 


JF.T.  59.  REPORT  ON  CHURCH  EXTENSION.  93 

its  rooms,  and  looked  out  at  every  turret  window.  Ascend- 
ed by  a  ladder  to  its  roof;  an  interesting  but  limited  pan- 
orama all  round  us,  land-locked  by  hills,  and  presenting  a 
horizon  marked  with  their  lofty  outlines.  Dismissed  our  own 
carriage,  and  got  with  Mr.  and  Mr.  Farquharson,  junior, 
into  their  double  one.  Descended  from  this  most  satisfactory 
round  and  penetration  into  the  inner  shrines  and  recesses  of 
Highland  scenery  to  the  house,  whence  we  emerged  on  foot 
upon  the  beautiful  grounds.  Dined  at  six.  A  most  delight- 
ful party  of  delightful  people  ;  and  what  charmed  me  exceed- 
ingly was,  that  the  moment  we  sat  down  to  dinner  the  bag- 
pipes struck  out  in  the  lobby,  and  serenaded  us  during  the 
whole  feast — a  most  interesting  but  now  very  rare  relic  of 
centuries  long  gone  by.  I  never  felt  more  the  spirit-stirring 
genius  of  the  Highlands  and  the  old  feudal  times,  than  here ; 
and  finished  a  day  which  formed  the  brightest  passage  in  my 
journey,  by  going  to  bed  about  eleven." 

The  biographer  of  Knox  informs  us  that,  in  the  summer 
of  1559,  at  a  critical  period  in  the  history  of  the  Church's 
Reformation,  he  "  undertook  a  tour  of  preaching  through 
the  kingdom.  The  wide  field  which  was  before  him,  the  in- 
teresting situation  in  which  he  was  placed,  the  dangers  by 
which  he  was  surrounded,  and  the  hopes  which  he  cherished, 
increased  the  ardor  of  his  zeal,  and  stimulated  him  to  extra- 
ordinary exertions  both  of  body  and  mind.  Within  less  than 
two  months  he  traveled  over  the  greater  part  of  Scotland. 
*  *:  *:  The  attention  of  the  nation  was  aroused,  their  ej^es 
were  opened  to  the  errors  by  which  they  had  been  deluded, 
and  they  panted  for  a  continued  and  more  copious  supply  of 
the  word  of  life." 

It  was  at  a  like  critical  period  in  the  history  of  the  Church's 
Extension  that  Dr.  Chalmers  undertook  his  tour  through 
Scotland.  His  pre-announced  and  confident  expectation  was, 
that  within  a  year  he  should  raise  £100,000,  and  add  a  hun- 
dred churches  moie  to  those  already  built ;  and  up  till  the 


94  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  in  May  every  thing  prom- 
ised fair  for  the  fulfillment  of  this  hope.  At  that  Assembly  it 
was  announced  that  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  sum  contem- 
plated had  already  been  subscribed  ;  and  as  the  fortnight 
during  which  Dr.  Chalmers  had  made  his  circuit  from  Dun- 
dee to  Dunfermline  had  yielded  £6000,  it  seemed  reasonable 
enough  to  calculate  that  the  succeeding  summer  months 
would  witness  the  completion  of  the  design.  But  the  event 
disappointed  the  expectation.  "  Better  announce  at  once," 
said  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  presenting  himself  before  the  General 
Assembly  of  1840,  "  that  the  last  has  proved  a  most  extra- 
ordinary year  in  the  history  of  Church  Extension — in  certain 
respects,  a  year  of  great  disaster  to  the  cause,  yet  in  others 
opening  up  the  hope,  nay,  even  realizing  the  tokens  of  its 
coming  enlargement.  The  present  controversial  state  of 
the  Church  has  operated  most  adversely,  in  particular,  on 
that  fund,  the  nature  and  objects  of  which  were  fully  ex- 
plained to  the  venerable  Assembly  in  the  report  of  last  year, 
and  now  well  known  by  its  designation  of  the  Supplementary 
Fund,  which,  but  for  our  unhappy  divisions,  might  by  this 
time  have  reached,  as  we  calculated  from  the  actual  success 
in  a  compatively  small  part  of  Scotland,  our  confident  antici- 
pation twelve  months  ago  of  .£100,000,  but  which,  because 
of  these  divisions,  scarcely,  if  at  all,  exceeds  the  sum  of 
£40,000."  It  was  discouraging  that  so  much  effort  should 
have  borne  so  little  fruit ;  but  the  disappointment  was  borne 
with  the  greater  equanimity  on  account  of  that  contemplated 
retirement  to  which,  at  the  end  of  his  report.  Dr.  Chalmers 
thus  alluded  : — "  the  convener  of  your  committee  who  has 
prepared  the  above  report,  craves  permission  to  close  it  with 
one  brief  paragraph  which  is  personal  to  himself  He  finds 
that  the  labors  and  requisite  attentions  of  an  office  which 
for  six  years  he  has  so  inadequately  filled,  have  now  become 
a  great  deal  too  much  for  him ;  and  for  the  sake  of  other 
labors  and  other  preparations  more  in  keeping  with  the  ardu- 
ous work  of  a  theological  professorship,  as  well  as  with  th« 


MT.  59.         PROGRESS  OF  CHURCH  EXTENSION.  95 

powers,  and,  he  may  add,  the  prospects  and  the  duties  of 
advanced  life,  he  begs  that  he  may  now  be  suffered  to  with- 
draw. While  he  rejoices  in  the  experimental  confirmation 
which  the  history  of  these  few  years  has  afforded  him  of  the 
resources  and  the  capabilities  of  the  Voluntary  system,  to 
which,  as  hitherto  unfostered  by  the  paternal  care  of  Gov- 
ernment, the  scheme  of  Church  Extension  is  indebted  for 
all  its  progress,  it  still  remains  his  unshaken  conviction  of 
that  system  notwithstanding,  that  it  should  only  be  re- 
sorted to  as  a  supplement,  and  never  but  in  times  when  the 
powers  of  infidelity  and  intolerance  are  linked  together  in 
hostile  combination  against  the  sacred  prerogatives  of  the 
Church  should  it  once  be  thought  of  as  a  substitute  for  a 
national  establishment  of  Christianity.  In  days  of  darkness 
and  disquietude  it  may  open  a  temporary  resource,  whether 
for  a  virtuous  secession  or  an  ejected  Church  to  fall  back 
upon  ;  but  a  far  more  glorious  consummation  is,  when  the 
{State  puts  forth  its  hand  to  sustain  but  not  to  subjugate  the 
Church,  and  the  two,  bent  on  moral  conquests  alone,  walk  to- 
gether as  fellow-helpers  toward  the  achievement  of  that  great 
pacific  triumph — the  Christian  education  of  the  people.  He 
to  whom  you  assigned  so  high  and  honorable  an  office  as  the 
prosecution  of  this  object,  and  who  now  addresses  you  in  the 
capacity  of  its  holder  for  the  last  time,  will  not  let  go  the 
confident  hope,  that  under  the  smile  of  an  approving  Heaven, 
and  with  the  blessing  from  on  high,  glorious  things  are  yet 
in  reserve  for  the  parishes  of  Scotland  ;  and  though  his  hand, 
now  waxing  feeble,  must  desist  from  the  performances  of 
other  days,  sooner  will  that  hand  forget  its  cunning,  than  he 
can  forget  or  cease  to  feel  for  the  Church  of  his  fathers." 

At  the  earnest  entreaty  of  the  Assembly,  Dr.  Chalmers 
continued  at  the  head  of  the  Extension  Committee  for  an- 
other year,  nor  did  he  retire  from  the  great  field  of  labor  till 
two  hundred  and  twenty  churches — more  than  one-fifth  of 
its  whole  complement — had  been  added  to  the  churches 
of  the  Estabhshment.      The  following  table  exhibits  the  pro- 


96  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

gress  of  Church  Extension  during  the  period  of  his  convener^ 
ship  : 


1835  there  were 

report 

ed  62  Churches  s 

md  c£65,626     1 

llf 

1836         do. 

do. 

26             do. 

32,359  12 

5| 

1837         do. 

do. 

67             do. 

59,311     6 

0 

1838         do. 

do. 

32             do. 

41,183     1 

43 

1839         do. 

do. 

14             do. 

52,959   14 

91 

1840         do. 

do. 

15             do. 

36,055     8 

oi 

1841          do. 

do. 

6             do. 
222  Churches 

18,252     6 

6 

Grand  total, 

and  305,747  11 

n 

CHAPTER  Yl. 

FIRST  STAGE  IN  THE  NON-INTRUSION  CONTROVERSY- 
SETTLEMENT  AT  AUCHTERARDER— ACTION  BEFORE 
THE  COURT  OF  SESSION— DECISION  OF  THE  JUDGES 
—APPEAL  TO  THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS— RESOLUTION 
OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  1838— SPEECHES  OF 
LORDS  BROUGHAM  AND  COTTENHAM— JUDGMENT  OF 
THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS— GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF 
1839— SPEECH  OF  DR,  CHALMERS. 

Five  years  had  now  elapsed  since  the  evangelical  interest 
became  ascendant  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  the  long 
lost  power  at  last  recovered,  every  department  of  Church 
affairs  bore  witness  to  the  zeal  and  energy  with  which  that 
power  was  exercised.  A  prosperous  commencement  was  made 
in  the  reformation  of  the  eldership.*  Candidates  for  the  holy 
ministry  were  subjected  to  stricter  examination,  and  the  course 
of  their  collegiate  education  was  enlarged.  A  salutary  dis- 
cipline was  exercised  over  the  ministers  of  the  Church,  and 
many  worthless  clergymen,  over  whose  delinquencies  a  shield 
of  protection  would  in  other  days  have  been  thrown,  were 
brought  to  trial  and  deposed.  That  spiritual  oversight  of 
parishes  by  Presbyteries,  of  Presbyteries  by  Synods,  and  of 
Synods  by  the  General  Assembly,  which  the  constitution  of 
the  Church  required,  was  fostered  into  increased  efiectiveness. 
The  English  and  Irish  orthodox  Presbyterian  Churches  were 
admitted  to  that  ministerial  communion  with  the  Church  of 
Scotland  from  which  they  h'ad  been  excluded, f  while  one 

*  This  spiritual  office  had  frequently  been  conferred  with  no  other 
object  than  to  entitle  its  holder  to  a  seat  in  the  General  Assembly,  so 
that  many  who  had  never  discharged  any  of  its  duties  became  members 
of  the  Supreme  Ecclesiastical  Court.     This  abuse  was  now  corrected. 

t  By  an  Act  of  Assembly  passed  in  1799,  the  ministers  of  every  other 
Church  in  the  world  were  absolutely  excluded  even  from  an  occasional 
occupation  of  the  pulpits  of  the  Establishment. 
VOL.   IV.— E 


98  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALxMERS.  1838. 

entire  branch  of  Seceders  from  the  Establishment  was  re- 
ceived within  its  pale.  Under  the  able  guidance  of  Dr.  In- 
glis  and  Dr.  Baird,  considerable  efibrts  had  been  already- 
made  in  furthering  Foreign  Missions  and  Home  Education. 
To  both  these  enterprises  a  new  stimulus  was  now  given.  In 
1796  the  General  Assembly  had  somewhat  contemptuously 
refused  to  entertain  the  question  of  missions  to  the  heathen. 
"  As  for  these  Missionary  Societies,"  said  one  eminent  indi- 
vidual, who  has  since  risen  to  the  highest  position  on  the 
Scottish  bench,  and  who  lived  to  deliver  judgment  against 
the  Church  in  the  Auchterarder  case,  "  I  do  aver,  that  since 
it  is  to  be  apprehended  that  these  funds  may  in  time,  nay, 
certainly  will,  be  turned  against  the  Constitution,  so  it  is  the 
bounden  duty  of  this  House  to  give  the  overtures  recommend- 
ing them  our  most  serious  disapprobation,  and  our  immediate 
most  decisive  opposition."*  In"  1835,  fresh  from  his  field 
of  labor  in  the  East,  the  Church's  own  first  and  most  honored 
missionary.  Dr.  Duff,  presented  himself  before  the  Assembly, 
and  to  his  fervent  pleadings  on  behalf  of  missions,  the  whole 
House  gave  back  one  unbroken  response  of  direct  and  grate- 
ful acquiescence.  Hitherto  it  had  been  only  on  educational 
destitution  existing  in  the  Highlands  and  Islands  of  Scotland 
that  the  General  Assembly  had  fixed  its  attention.  But  now 
its  more  wakeful  eye  was  fastened  on  the  like  but  more  fatal 
destitution  existing  in  the  large  towns  and  more  populous  dis- 
tricts of  the  Lowlands  ;  and  under  the  counsels  of  Dr.  Welsh, 
and  the  vigorous  agency  of  Mr.  David  Stow,  of  Glasgow,  the 
best  basis  was  laid  for  an  improved  and  extended  national 
education  in  the  institution  of  Normal  Schools.  In  1836, 
widening  still  further  the  embrace  of  her  sympathies  and 
efforts,  a  scheme  was  organized,  and  an  annual  collection  in 
all  the  churches  was  ordered,  for  the  promotion  of  Christian- 
ity in  the  British  colonies,  where  so  rnany  of  our  expatriated 

*  See  "  The  two  parties  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  exhibited  as 
Missionary  and  Anti-Missionary,  by  Hugh  Miller." — Edinburgh,  1841. 
P.  33.       '        . 


JET.5n.      EFFECTS  OF  EVANGELICAL  ASCENDENCY.  99 

countrymen,  through  want  of  the  means  of  grace,  had  fallen 
into  spiritual  forgetful ness.  The  year  1838  was  distinguish- 
ed by  the  appointment  of  a  Commission  of  Inquiry  into  the 
state  of  the  Jews,  in  execution  of  which  Dr.  Keith  and  Dr. 
Black,  Mr.  M'Cheyne  and  Mr.  Bonar,  journeyed  over  Europe 
to  Palestine — furnishing  that  Report  upon  which  a  new 
Scheme  for  the  Conversion  of  the  Jews  was  added  to  those 
formerly  existing,  and  which  received  from  the  Christian 
public  a  general  and  cordial  support.  Altogether,  in  evidence 
of  the  rekindled  zeal  and  redoubled  energy  with  which  all  her 
public  Christian  enterprises  were  prosecuted,  we  can  point  to 
the  Church's  collective  annual  revenue  for  these  objects  in  the 
year  1839,  as  being  fourteen  times  greater  than  it  had  been  in 
1834.  Speaking  of  this  brief  but  brilliant  period,  Dr.  Chal- 
mers says,  "  We  abolished  the  union  of  offices — we  are  plant- 
ing schools — we  are  multiplying  chapels — we  are  sending 
forth  missionaries  to  distant  parts  of  the  world — we  have 
purified  and  invigorated  the  discipline — we  are  extending  the 
Church,  and  rallying  our  population  around  its  venerable 
standard — we  are  bringing  the  sectaries  again  within  its  pale 
— and  last,  though  not  least,  we  have  reformed  the  patron- 
age ;  and  our  licentiates,  instead  of  a  tutorship  in  the  families 
of  the  great  as  their  stepping-stone  to  preferment,  now  betake 
themselves  to  a  parochial  assistantship  or  to  a  preaching  sta- 
tion, with  its  correspondent  home-walk  of  Christian  usefulness 
among  the  families  of  the  surrounding  poor,  as  the  likeliest 
passage  to  a  higher  place  in  their  profession,  even  as  it  is  the 
best  preparation  for  the  duties  of  their  high  calling.  And 
not  only  is  there  the  visible  glow  of  this  great  and  whole- 
some reform  abroad  over  the  country,  or  in  the  outer  depart- 
ment of  the  Church,  but  in  the  business  of  its  courts  and 
judicatories,  in  the  General  Assembly  itself,  there  is  the  same 
great  and  obvious  reformation  :  so  that,  instead  of  the  eccle- 
siastico-political  arena  which  it  once  was,  more  at  least  than 
half  its  time  is  taken  up  with  the  beseeming  cares  of  a  great 
moral  institute,  devising  for  the  Christian  good  and  the  best 


100  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1838. 

interests  of  men  both  at  home  and  abroad."  It  was  no  com- 
mon calamity  which  put  an  abrupt  and  fatal  close  to  a  career 
so  promising,  and  our  countrymen,  to  the  latest  generation, 
will  be  found  inquiring  what  were  the  mighty  interests  in 
defense  of  which  operations  so  fruitful  of  good  were  all  ar- 
rested, and  the  men  who  were  so  vigorously  prosecuting  them 
driven  beyond  the  pale  of  the  Establishment.  We  have  now 
to  enter  upon  the  painful  history  of  those  proceedings  which 
terminated  in  this  disastrous  issue. 

A  few  months  after  the  passing  of  the  Veto  Law  by  the 
Assembly  of  1834,  a  presentation  was  issued  by  the  Earl  of 
Kinnoul  to  the  vacant  parish  of  Auchterarder,  in  Perthshire. 
Mr.  Young,  the  presentee,  was  not  in  orders,  holding  only  a 
license  from  his  Presbytery,  which  permitted  him  to  preach 
as  a  candidate  for  the  holy  office.  After  he  had  preached 
on  two  successive  Sabbaths  in  the  pulpit  of  the  vacant  church, 
a  day  was  appointed  for  moderating  in  a  call — that  is,  for 
inviting  the  people  to  express  their  concurrence  in  his  settle- 
ment. In  a  parish  containing  three  thousand  souls,  only  two 
of  its  inhabitants  came  forward  upon  that  day  to  sign  the 
call  ;  and  when,  in  obedience  to  the  recent  Act  of  Assem- 
bly, an  opportunity  was  afforded  to  those  male  heads  of  fam- 
ilies whose  names  were  on  the  attested  communion  roll,  of 
tendering  their  dissent,  out  of  the  three  hundred  entitled  to 
use  this  privilege  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven,  or  more 
than  five-sixths  of  the  whole  members  gave  in  their  names 
as  dissentients,  and  all  expressed  their  readiness  to  make  the 
solemn  declaration,  that  they  were  actuated  by  no  factious 
or  malicious  motives,  but  solely  by  a  conscientious  regard  to 
the  spiritual  interests  of  themselves  and  the  congregation. 
To  afford  them  time  for  reconsideration,  and  an  opportunity, 
if  they  chose  to  avail  themselves  of  it,  to  withdraw  their 
names,  the  Presbytery  adjourned  for  a  fortnight ;  but  at  the 
adjourned  meeting,  without  one  exception,  they  all  adhered 
to  their  dissent.  Before  any  final  judgment  was  given,  in 
consequence  of  objections  taken  to  some  parts  of  the  Presby- 


MT.  58.     JUDGMEiNT  OF  THE  COURT  OF  SESSION.  101 

tery's  proceedings,  the  case  went  by  appeal  before  the  Synod 
of  Perth  and  Stirling,  and  afterward  before  the  General  As- 
sembly of  1835.  Having  repelled  the  objections  which  had 
been  taken  to  the  actings  of  the  inferior  Court,  the  Assembly 
remitted  the  case  to  the  Presbytery,  with  instructions  "  to 
proceed  in  the  matter  in  terms  of  the  Interim  Act  of  last 
Assembly,"  Acting  under  these  instructions,  the  Presby- 
tery, on  the  7th  July,  1835,  rejected  Mr.  Young,  •'  so  far  as 
regarded  that  particular  presentation."  Against  this  rejec- 
tion the  presentee  entered  an  appeal  to  the  Synod,  which  he 
afterward  abandoned  ;  and  it  was  with  mingled  curiosity  and 
alarm  that  the  Church  learned,  that  in  conjunction  with  the 
patron  he  had  raised  an  action  against  the  Presbytery  before 
the  Supreme  Civil  Court,  the  Court  of  Session.  As  the  ac- 
tion was  originally  laid,  the  Court  was  asked  to  review  the 
proceedings  of  the  Presbytery  solely  with  the  view  of  de- 
termining the  destination  of  the  benefice,  and  declaring  that 
the  just  and  legal  right  to  the  stipend  still  lay  with  the  re- 
jected presentee.  The  case,  however,  had  not  been  in  Court 
more  than  a  few  wrecks  when  an  ominous  change  was  made 
upon  the  whole  character  of  the  action.  This  change,  tech- 
nically denominated  "  an  amendment  of  the  libel,"  was  effected 
by  the  introduction  of  new  clauses,  in  M^hich  the  Court  was 
asked  to  find  and  declare  that  the  rejection  of  Mr.  Young, 
expressly  on  the  ground  of  a  veto  by  the  parishioners,  was 
illegal,  being  contrary  to  statute,  and  that  the  Presbytery 
was  still  under  statutory  obligation  to^JWr.  Young  upon  trial, 
and  if  found  qualified  to  ordain  him  as  minister  of  the  parish. 
The  case,  the  novelty  and  importance  of  which  began  now 
to  be  universally  appreciated,  was  ordered  to  be  heard  before 
all  the  judges.  The  pleadings  began  on  the  21st  Novem- 
ber, and  closed  on  the  1  2th  of  the  succeeding  month.  On 
the  27th  February,  1838,  and  on  six  subsequent  days,  the 
judges  delivered  their  opinions,  deciding,  by  a  majority  of 
eight  to  five,  in  favor  of  the  pursuers  and  against  the  Church. 
The  majority  was  composed  of  the  Lord  President  (Hope), 


102  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALM'ERS.  1838. 

Lord  Gillies,  the  Lord  Justice-Clerk  (Boyle),  Lord  Meadow- 
bank,  Lord  Mackenzie,  Lord  Medwyn,  Lord  Corehouse,  and 
Lord  Cuninghame.  The  minority  consisted  of  Lord  Fuller- 
ton,  Lord  Moncrieff,  Lord  Glenlee,  Lord  Jeffrey,  and  Lord 
Cockburn.  The  judgment  of  the  Court,  delivered  on  the 
8th  March,  did  not  cover  the  whole  of  the  conclusions  craved 
by  the  pursuers  ;  but  after  repelling  the  objections  which  had 
been  taken  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  and  the  compe- 
tency of  the  action,  restricted  itself  to  finding,  that  in  reject- 
ing Mr.  Young  "  on  the  sole  ground  that  a  majority  of  male 
heads  of  families,  communicants  in  the  said  parish,  have  dis- 
sented, without  any  reason  assigned,  from  his  admission  as 
minister,  the  Presbytery  have  acted  illegally  and  in  violation 
of  their  duty,  and  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  certain  statutes 
libeled  on." 

Throughout  all  the  lengthened  arguments  delivered  at  the 
Bar  and  from  the  Bench  the  two  leading  questions  which 
were  carefully  distinguished  from  each  other,  and  subjected  to 
separate  discussion,  were, —  1.  The  legality  of  the  Veto  Law, 
— whether  the  Church,  under  statute  or  otherwise,  was  legally 
competent  to  enact  such  a  law,  and  whether,  in  enacting  it, 
she  had  violated  any  statute  of  the  realm  ;  and,  2.  The  com- 
petence of  the  Court  of  Session  to  interfere,  in  case  it  should 
find  the  Veto  Law  to  be  illegal,  for  any  other  purpose,  and 
to  any  other  effect,  than  simply  to  regulate  the  destination  of 
the  benefice.  The  pleadings  at  the  Bar,  as  well  as  the  opinions 
delivered  from  the  Bench,  left  a  certain  amount  of  obscurity 
resting  upon  both  these  leading  topics.  It  sometimes  seemed 
as  if  the  alleged  illegality  of  the  Veto  Law  lay  exclusively  in 
the  conclusive  force  bestowed  upon  an  arbitrary  dissent  of  a 
majority,  and  in  the  Church  having  thereby  transferred  to 
the  people  a  privilege  which,  though  possessed  by  herself,  she 
was  not  at  liberty  1o  alienate  ;  so  that  if  taking  Mr.  Young 
upon  trial,  and  looking  upon  his  non-acceptability  as  a  dis- 
qualification, she  were  on  that  ground  by  her  own  authority 
and  upon  her  own  judgment  to  reject  him,  she  would  be  guilty 


.'ET,  58.  THE  VETO  LAW.  103 


of  no  breach  of  any  statute.  In  the  arguments,  again,  by 
which  the  competency  of  the  Court  of  Session  to  adjudicate 
upon  this  case  was  sustained,  it  was  difficult  to  know  whether 
it  was  affirmed  or  not,  that  over  all  such  actings  of  Church 
Courts  as  directly  or  indirectly  carried  civil  consequences, 
the  Court  of  Session  claimed  the  same  authority  which  it 
possessed  and  exercised  over  all  the  inferior  civil  tribunals  of 
the  kingdom,  or  whether  any  separate  standing  and  exclusive 
jurisdiction  was  allowed  to  the  ecclesiastical  judicatories.  The 
Court  of  Session  had  considered  itself  competent  to  declare 
that  a  Presbytery  which,  acting  under  the  explicit  directions 
of  the  supreme  ecclesiastical  tribunal,  had  done  nothing  but 
carry  out  a  law  of  the  Assembly,  had  done  an  illegal  act.  But 
was  it  prepared  to  do  here  what,  in  eveiy  like  case  of  a  purely 
civil  character,  it  was  its  right  and  duty  to  do — to  order  the 
Presbytery  to  proceed  as  it  directed;  and  holding  the  Veto 
Law  as  a  nullity,  simply  because  it,  the  Court  of  Session, 
held  it  so,  to  take  the  necessary  steps  toward  the  presentee's 
ordination  :  and  in  case  of  the  Presbytery's  disobedience,  was 
it  prepared  by  the  ordinary  compulsitors  of  law — by  fine  or 
imprisonment — to  enforce  obedience  to  its  edict  ?  In  itself 
the  sentence  pronounced  by  the  Court  was  equivocal.  De- 
claring what  the  Presbytery  had  done  to  be  illegal,  it  stopped 
short  of  declaring  or  prescribing  what  the  Presbytery  should 
do.  That  sentence  might  have  been  given  though  all  that 
the  Court  meant  to  interfere  with  was  the  appropriation  of 
the  stipend.  One  thing  alone  was  clearly  and  conclusively 
determined  by  it,  that  should  the  Church  persist  in  rejecting 
Mr.  Young,  she  incurred  thereby  the  forfeiture  of  the  benefice. 
It  was  to  prevent,  if  possible,  this  forfeiture  that,  at  its  meeting 
in  May,  1838,  the  General  Assembly  instructed  its  law  officer 
to  appeal  the  case  to  the  House  of  Lords.  That  there  might 
be  no  misunderstanding,  however,  of  the  position  relative  to 
the  Civil  Courts  assumed  by  the  Church,  the  same  Assembly 
passed  a  very  memorable  resolution.  The  Church's  separate 
and  exclusive  spiritual  jurisdiction,  though  not  yet  actually 


104  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  183S. 

invaded,  was  most  seriously  menaced.  Opinions  had  been 
uttered,  both  at  the  Bar  and  from  the  Bench  which  went  to 
strip  her  of  all  those  liberties  and  privileges,  which,  given  her 
by  her  Great  Head,  she  believed  had  been  amply  guaranteed 
to  her  by  statute,  and  which,  except  in  the  darkest  periods 
of  her  persecution,  she  had  freely  exercised  and  enjoyed.  The 
blow  had  not  yet  been  struck  which  should  lay  her  prostrate 
beneath  the  secular  power,  but  the  arm  was  lifted,  and  there 
seemed  no  want  of  will  to  strike.  Calmly,  solemnly,  resolutely, 
in  front  of  the  impending  danger  she  took  up  her  ground — 
ground  from  which  she  never  swerved.  By  a  majority  of 
183  to  142  the  General  Assembly  of  1838  resolved — 

"  That  the  General  Assembly  of  this  Church,  while  they 
unqualifiedly  acknowledge  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the 
Civil  Courts  in  regard  to  the  civil  rights  and  emoluments 
secured  by  law  to  the  Church  and  the  ministers  thereof,  and 
will  ever  give  and  inculcate  implicit  obedience  to  their  de- 
cisions thereanent,  do  resolve,  that  as  it  is  declared  in  the 
Confession  of  Faith  of  this  National  Estabhshed  Church,  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  King  and  Head  of  the  Church,  and 
hath  therein  appointed  a  government  in  the  hands  of  Church 
officers  distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate,  and  that  in  all  mat- 
ters touching  the  doctrine,  government,  and  discipline  of  the 
Church,  her  judicatories  possess  an  exclusive  jurisdiction, 
founded  on  the  Word  of  God,  which  '  power  ecclesiastical  (in 
the  words  of  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline)  flows  from  God, 
and  the  Mediator,  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  spiritual,  not  having 
a  temporal  head  on  earth  but  only  Christ,  the  only  spiritual 
King  and  Governor  of  his  Kirk  ;'  and  they  do  further  resolve, 
that  this  spiritual  jurisdiction  and  supremacy  and  sole  head- 
ship of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  on  which  it  depends,  they  will 
assert,  and  at  all  hazards  defend,  by  the  help  and  blessing  of 
that  great  God  who,  in  the  days  of  old,  enabled  their  fathers, 
amid  manifold  persecutions,  to  maintain  a  testimony  even  to 
the  death,  for  Christ's  kingdom  and  crown  :  And,  finally,  that 
they  will  firmly  enforce  obedience  to  the  same  upon  all  office- 


^T.  53.         LORDS  BROUGHAM  AND  COTTENHAM.  105 

bearers  and  members  of  this  Church,  by  the  execution  of  her 
laws  in  the  exercise  of  the  ecclesiastical  authority  wherewith 
they  are  invested." 

Nearly  a  year  had  elapsed  ere  the  Auchterarder  case  was 
heard  before  the  House  of  Lords.  Lords  Brougham  and 
Cottenham  having  delivered  their  opinions  on  the  2d  and 
3d  May,  1839,  and  their  opinions  substantially  agreeing,  the 
sentence  of  that  Court  was  passed  dismissing  the  appeal  and 
confirming  the  deliverance  of  the  Court  of  Session.  For  one 
thing,  at  least,  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  to  thank  these 
noble  Lords  :  their  speeches  cleared  away  all  the  ambiguity 
which  had  rested  upon  the  discussion  of  the  Court  below.  It 
was  by  a  simple  and  very  short  line  of  argument  that  they 
each  arrived  at  their  interpretation  of  the  law  of  Patronage. 
By  the  concluding  clause  of  the  Act  of  Queen  Anne  restoring 
patronages,  the  Act  1592  had  been  revived,  and  became  the 
governing  statute  upon  this  subject.  That  statue  ordains 
"that  all  presentations  to  benefices  be  directed  to  the  particu- 
lar Presbyteries,  with  full  power  to  give  collation  thereupon, 
and  to  put  order  to  all  matters  and  causes  ecclesiastical  with- 
in their  bounds,  according  to  the  discipline  of  the  Kirk  ;  pro- 
vided the  foresaid  Presbyteries  be  bound  and  astricted  to  re- 
ceive and  admit  whatsoever  qualified  minister  presented  by 
His  Majesty  or  lay  patrons."  According  to  the  interpreta- 
tion put  upon  this  statute  by  Lords  Brougham  and  Cotten- 
ham, the  sole  province  of  the  Church  in  the  matter  of  colla- 
tion, beyond  which  she  can  not  travel  without  subjecting  her- 
self to  civil  coercion,  is  to  judge  of  the  personal  qualifications 
of  the  presentee,  and  in  so  judging  she  must  strictly  limit 
herself  to  an  inquiry  into  his  life,  literature,  and  manners. 
"  With  respect  to  qualification,"  said  Lord  Brougham,  "  I 
am  somewhat  surprised  to  find  in  the  very  able  and  learned 
arguments  from  the  Bench  below,  an  attempt  made  to  show 
that  qualification  is  of  such  extensive  meaning,  that  within 
its  scope  may  be  brought  the  whole  of  the  matter  at  present 
in  dispute — namely,  the  acceptableness  and  reception  of  the 


106  iMEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

party  presented  by  the  congregation  as  finding  favor  in  their 
sight.  ^  ^  ^  I  am  going  to  show  your  Lordships  that  no 
such  meaning  can  possibly,  by  the  law  of  Scotland,  be  given 
to  the  word  '  qualified.'  It  is  a  technical  word  in  this  ques- 
tion ;  it  is  not  the  word  '  qualified'  used  in  its  general  sense, 
as  you  talk  of  a  man's  qualities — of  his  capacity — of  his 
abilities — of  his  merits,  which  are  all  general  phrases,  and 
none  of  them  technically  defined.  The  word  '  qualified'  is  as 
much  a  known  word  of  the  law,  and  has  as  much  a  technical 
sense  imposed  upon  it  by  the  statutes^by  the  law  authori- 
ties— by  the  opinions  of  commentators — by  the  dicta  of 
judges — as  the  word  'qualification'  has  when  used  to  express 
a  right  to  kill  game,  or  when  used  to  express  a  right 
to  vote  in  the  election  of  a  member  of  Parliament.  *  *  ^  It 
means  a  qualification  in  literature,  life,  and  morals,  to  be 
judged  of  by  the  Presbytery  ;  and  no  one  talks  of  interfering 
with  that  right  of  so  judging  by  them."=^  The  Lord  Chan- 
cellor was  equally  explicit  :  "  But  if  it  be  clear,  as  it  certain- 
ly is,  that  the  qualifications  referred  to  in  the  statutes  are 
personal  qualifications — 'literature,  life,  and  manners' — there 
can  be  no  grountl  for  contending  that  the  dissent  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  heads  of  families  is  a  disqualification  within  the 
meaning  of  the  statutes.  *  *  *  The  absolute  right  of  patron- 
age, subject  only  to  the  rejection  of  the  presentee  by  the  ad- 
judication of  the  Presbytery  for  want  of  qualification,  which 
is  secured  by  the  statute,  is  inconsistent  with  the  exercise  of 
any  volition  by  the  inhabitants,  however  expressed."!  Such 
an  interpretation  confined  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  to 
the  one  single  topic  of  judging  of  the  presentee's  life,  litera- 
ture, and  manners,  and  deprived  the  congregation  or  general 
body  of  communicants  of  all  standing,  weight,  and  influence 
in  the  settlement  of  ministers.  It  was  an  interpretation 
altogether  new — new  to  every  party  of  Churchmen  in  Scot- 
land,  and  inconsistent  with  the  whole  current  of  hitherto 

*   Robertson's  Report,  p.  14,  15,  17.  t  Ibid  p.  52,  53. 


JET.  59.         NOVELTY  OF  THE  INTERPRETATION.  107 

unchallenged  laws  and  actings  of  the  Church.  When  a 
patron  happened  to  present  a  clergyman  already  ordained, 
upon  whose  personal  qualifications  the  Church  had  already 
passed  approving  judgment,  in  such  a  case,  and  according  to 
this  interpretation,  no  ground  or  liberty  of  rejecting  him  re- 
mained. Lord  Brougham  referring  expressly  to  such  a  case, 
declared  that  nothing  so  wild  had  ever  been  urged  as  the 
supposition  that  the  Church  could  claim  or  exercise  such  a 
right ;  and  yet  up  to  this  time,  neither  among  the  lawyers 
nor  the  ecclesiastics  of  Scotland  had  there  ever  been  a  doubt 
as  to  the  Church's  possession  of  this  right — her  whole  pro- 
ceeding in  the  instance  of  the  translation  of  ordained  clergy- 
men from  one  parish  to  another  was  based  upon  its  existence 
— in  innumerable  cases  had  it  been  exercised,  ordained  pre- 
sentees having  been  rejected,  and  yet  never  once,  whether  in 
court  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  had  this  power  of  rejection  been 
challenged.  In  1817  Dr.  Hill,  the  leader  of  the  Moderate 
party,  introduced  and  carried  a  measure  in  the  General 
Assembly,  by  which  the  union  of  a  professorship  in  a  college 
and  the  ministerial  charge  of  a  country  parish  was  prohibit- 
ed. By  this  new  version,  however,  of  the  Law  of  Patron- 
age, such  a  measure  was  ultra  vires  of  the  Assembly,  and 
any  professor  rejected  upon  the  ground  of  this  prohibition  had 
only  to  bring  his  case  before  the  Civil  Court  to  have  his  right 
to  admission  confirmed  and  enforced.  So  universal  was  the 
conviction  that  the  Church's  prerogative  extended  beyond  a 
mere  adjudication  upon  life,  literature,  and  morals,  that  when, 
in  1833,  Dr.  Chalmers  first  introduced  the  Veto  Law,  Dr. 
Cook's  motion,  which  on  that  occasion  was  carried,  declared 
it  competent  for  the  heads  of  families  to  give  in  objections, 
of  whatever  nature,  against  the  presentee,  and  for  the  Pres- 
bytery, if  they  thought  such  objections  to  be  well  grounded, 
to  reject  him.  In  the  discussion  which  then  took  place, 
Dr.  Cook  strenuously  affirmed  "  that  the  Church  regarded 
qualification  as  including  much  more  than  learning,  moral 
character,  and  sound  doctrine — as  extending,  in  fact,  to  the 


108  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

fitness  of  the  presentees,  in   all  respects,  for  the  particular 
situation  to  which  they  were  appointed." 

Had  the  interpretation  now  put  upon  the  Law  of  Patron- 
age been  known  in  the  preceding  century,  to  what  an  amount 
of  ecclesiastical  litigation  about  calls  would  it  have  put  an 
immediate  and  final  termination.  For  many  years  in  the 
earlier  part  of  that  century,  and  so  long  as  that  party  still 
predominated  which  was  resolved  to  carry  out  the  principle, 
which  the  Church  had  so  often  declared  to  be  a  fundamental 
one,  that  no  pastor  should  be  intruded  into  any  congregation 
contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people,  cases  continually  occurred 
in  which  presentees  were  rejected  on  no  other  ground  what- 
ever than  the  insufficiency  of  the  call — their  want  of  ac- 
ceptability to  the  people  ;  but  there  never  was  a  case  of 
any  such  rejected  presentee  having  recourse  to  the  Court 
of  Session,  because  neither  in  the  Parliament  House  nor  in 
the  Assembly  had  this  new  view  been  broached,  of  the  un- 
fettered right  of  the  patron.  When  the  Moderate  party, 
under  the  able  guidance  of  Lord  Brougham's  distinguished 
relative,  Principal  Pvobertson,  began  that  course  of  policy, 
which,  after  many  a  painful  conflict,  finally  reduced  the  call 
to  a  mere  dead  form,  the  struggle  was  restricted  entirely  to 
the  Church  Courts,  which  it  certainly  would  not  have  been, 
had  it  ever  been  imagined  that  so  summary  a  method  of  set- 
tlement was  available  as  that  supplied  by  the  decision  of  the 
House  of  Lords. 

The  mere  novelty,  however,  of  this  interpretation  of  a 
single  law,  was  not  nearly  so  alarming  as  were  those  general 
views  as  to  the  constitution  of  the  Church,  and  the  nature 
and  consequences  of  her  connection  with  the  State,  upon 
which  that  interpretation  obviously  and  ostensibly  was 
based.  The  Church's  power  in  this  single  case  had  been 
limited  to  such  narrow  boundaries,  because  no  statute  could 
be  found  which  distinctly  and  specifically  bestowed  upon  her 
any  other  or  wider  range  of  action.  It  was  in  vain  that 
the  Church's  advocates  spoke  of  powers  and  privileges — of  a 


^T.58.     LLMITATION  OF  CHURCH'S  JURISDICTION.  109 

constitution  and  polity  possessed  by  her,  not  in  virtue  of 
any  donation  by  the  State,  but  in  virtue  of  her  divine  in- 
stitution by  Christ.  It  was  in  vain  that  they  pointed  to 
the  many  express  statutory  recognitions  and  ratifications  of 
her  government  and  discipline,  as  flowing  to  her  from  her 
great  Spiritual  Head.  It  was  in  vain  that,  turning  to  that 
very  Act  of  1592,  by  help  of  which  the  right  of  the  patron 
was  to  be  carried  triumphantly  over  all  those  defenses 
against  the  intrusion  of  unacceptable  ministers  which  the 
Church  had  erected,  they  quoted  the  clause  which  gave  the 
Church  full  power  to  put  order  to  all  matters  and  causes 
ecclesiastical,  according  to  the  discipline  of  the  Kirk.  It 
was  in  vain  that  they  quoted  another  portion  of  this  same 
statute,  in  which,  referring  to  and  repealing  a  previous  Act 
which  had  asserted  the  Pv-oyal  supremacy  over  all  persons 
and  causes  ecclesiastical,  it  was  declared  that  it  "  should  no 
ways  be  prejudicial,  nor  derogate  any  thing  from  the  p^-iv- 
ilege  that  God  has  given  to  the  spiritual  oflice-bearers  in 
the  Kirk,  concerning  heads  of  religion,  matters  of  heresy, 
excommunication,  collation  or  deprivatioii  of  ministers,  or 
any  such  like  censures  specially  grounded  and  having  war- 
rant of  the  Word."  The  statute  had  spoken  only  of  judg- 
ing of  the  presentee's  qualifications,  and  beyond  that  the 
Church  must  not  proceed.  If  in  her  judicial  capacity  she 
had  frequently  prevented  the  settlement  of  ministers,  against 
whose  "  hfe,  literature,  and  manners,"  nothing  could  be 
alleged  ;  if  in  her  legislative  capacity  she  had  passed  many 
laws,  imposing  other  restrictions  upon  Patronage  than  the 
single  one  now  allowed,  her  judgments  were  illegal,  her 
laws  were  impotent.  Instead  of  her  own  old  conception  that 
she  had  all  freedom,  except  that  which  statute  specifically 
denied,  the  new  conception  was  that  she  had  no  freedom 
except  that  which  statute  specifically  granted.  Adopting 
this  conception,  "  one-half,  and  more  than  one-half,  of  the 
privileges  of  the  Church  would  be  disallowed  ;  and  she 
would  be  rendered  more  bare  of  honor  and  prerogative,  than 


110  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839 

even  any  ordinary  corporation,  whose  privilege.?  may  be 
asserted  and  ascertained  by  an  appeal  to  the  general  prac- 
tice of  the  constitution."* 

In  their  sentence,  the  Court  of  Session  had  refrained  from 
laying  any  order  upon  the  Presbytery,  and  the  House  of 
Lords  did  nothing  more  than  simply  affirm  that  sentence. 
In  the  forwardness  of  his  zeal,  however,  Lord  Brougham 
volunteered  to  instruct  the  Court  of  Session  as  to  their 
future  course.  "  And  then,"  said  his  Lordship,  "may  come 
this  question,  *  What  is  the  Court  of  Session  to  do  upon  the 
petitory  part  of  the  summons,  supposing  that  shall  be  in- 
sisted upon  ?'  Enough  it  is  for  me  to-day  to  observe  that 
this  is  not  now  before  us.  But  suppose  it  were,  I  should 
have  no  fear  in  dealing  with  it.  I  should  at  once  make  an 
order  upon  the  Presbytery  to  admit,  if  duly  qualified,  and  to 
disregard  the  dissent  of  the  congregation  ;"  "  and  if  they  did 
not  admit,  they  broke  the  laws,  they  acted  illegally,  and 
w^ere  liable  to  the  consequences,  civil  and  other,  of  disobey- 
ing the  positive  and  clear  order  of  a  statute."  *  #  *  ««  Still 
it  is  affirmed  that  the  Presbytery  may  persist  in  refusing. 
My  Lords,  it  is  indecent  to  suppose  any  such  case.  You 
might  as  well  suppose  that  Doctor's  Commons  would  refuse 
to  attend  to  a  prohibition  from  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  ; 
you  might  as  well  suppose  that  the  Court  of  Session,  when 
you  remit  a  cause  with  orders  to  alter  the  judgment,  would 
refuse  to  alter  it." 

Never  once  during  all  that  period  when  litigations  about 
confficting  presentations,  and  the  settlement  of  ministers 
thereupon,  had  been  so  numerous,  had  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion ventured  upon  such  an  act  as  that  which  they  were 
now  so  heartily  counseled  to  perform.  They  had  been 
once  asked  to  do  a  kindred  deed,  but  they  had  refused  to 
interfere  ;  "  because  that  was  interfering  with  the  power 
of  ordination,  or  the  internal  policy  of  the  Church,   with 

*  See  the  admirable  speech  of  the  Solicitor-General  (RutherfurtI), 
in  Robertson's  Report,  vol.  i.  p.  356. 


^T.  59.  ADVICE  GIVEN  BY  DR.  CHALMERS.  m 

which  the  Lords  thought  that  they  had  nothing  to  do."* 
Should  the  Presbytery  persist  in  refusing  to  settle  Mr. 
Young,  one  clause  of  the  very  act  upon  which  so  much  was 
grounded,  might  have  suggested  to  Lord  Brougham  another 
alternative  than  the  one  which  he  had  suggested  : — "Pro- 
viding always,  in  case  the  Presbytery  refuses  to  admit  any 
qualified  minister  presented  to  them  by  the  patron,  it  shall 
be  lawful  to  the  patron  to  retain  the  whole  fruits  of  the  said 
benefice  in  his  own  hands."  If  Presbyteries  were  under 
statutory  obligation  to  admit  qualified  presentees,  and  by  the 
ordinary  compulsitors  of  the  law  could  be  forced  to  fulfill 
such  obligation,  how  came  such  a  clause  as  this  into  that 
very  Act,  by  which,  as  it  was  alleged,  that  very  obligation 
was  imposed  ?  That  clause,  indeed,  stands  upon  the  statute- 
book  as  a  perpetual  protest  against  that  series  of  encroach- 
ments upon  the  spiritual  prerogatives  of  the  Church  upon 
which  the  Court  of  Session  was  now  hastening  to  embark, 
and  a  perpetual  vindication  of  that  position  which,  as  the 
sequel  will  indicate,  the  Church  felt  herself  compelled  to 
occupy. 

The  speeches  of  Lords  Brougham  and  Cottenham  were 
delivered  early  in  May,  1839,  and  had  great  influence  in 
determining  the  proceedings  of  the  General  Assembly,  which 
commenced  its  sittings  on  the  16th  of  that  month.  They 
effected  a  very  important  change  in  that  course  of  policy 
which  Dr.  Chalmers  had  been  prepared  to  advise.  He  was 
in  no  way  particularly  wedded  to  the  Veto  Law.  Regard- 
ing it  only  as  one  mode  of  gaining  a  certain  end — the 
hindering  of  bad  and  the  promoting  of  good  appointments — 
he  was  ready  to  make  any  change  in  the  mode,  if  only  the 
same  end  could  be  realized.  The  decision  of  the  Court  of 
Session  had  made  it  clear  that  whenever  a  rejection  under 
the  Veto  Law  took  place,  a  forfeiture  of  the  temporalities  of 
the  living  would  ensue.      But  up  to  the  time  when  the  Lord 

*  Report  in  the  case  of  Dunse,  by  Lord  Monboddo,  quoted  by  Mr. 
Bell. — Robertson's  Report^  vol.  i.  p.  117. 


112  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

Chancellor  and  Lord  Brougham  had  delivered  their  opinions, 
he  had  been  convinced  that  if  relinquishing  the  form  of 
procedure  established  by  the  Veto  Law,  and  falling  back 
upon  her  own  intrinsic  powers,  the  Church  were  to  sit  in 
judgment  upon  each  case  of  settlement  as  it  occurred,  she 
w^ould  be  able  to  prevent  all  improper  intrusion  of  parties 
upon  reclaiming  congregations.  He  had  been  prepared, 
therefore,  to  advise  that  the  Assembly  should  repeal  the 
Veto  Law  :  and,  with  a  general  declaration  of  a  resolution 
to  maintain  the  principle  of  Non-Intrusion,  should  commit 
the  whole  matter  in  the  first  instance  to  the  Presbyteries  of 
the  Church.  These  speeches  of  the  two  Chancellors  taught 
him  that  a  veto  by  the  Presbytery  would  now  be  held  to  be 
as  illegal  as  a  veto  by  the  congregation  ;  and  that  to  repeal 
the  Veto  Law  w^ould  bring  them  no  nearer  to  the  effecting 
of  such  a  harmony  between  the  law  of  the  State  as  in- 
terpreted by  the  highest  legal  functionaries  of  the  realm,  and 
the  law  and  practices  of  the  Church  for  the  prevention  of 
intrusion,  as  should  hinder  the  dissevering  of  the  benefice 
from  the  cure  of  souls.  Assuming  that  the  Church  were  to 
stand  firm  in  her  purpose,  to  take  no  part  in  the  ordination 
of  men  whom  she  conscientiously  believed  to  be  unfit  for 
that  particular  charge  to  which  they  had  been  presented,  it 
was  obvious  that  the  desired  harmony  could  be  attained  only 
through  the  intervention  of  the  Legislature.  A  direct  and 
immediate  application  to  the  Legislature  seemed,  therefore, 
the  fittest,  if  not  the  only  course  for  the  Church  to' pursue. 
For  six  years  past  Dr.  Chalmers  had  not  been  a  member  of 
the  General  Assembly,  and  with  the  exception  of  reading 
his  Annual  Report  on  Church  Extension,  he  had  taken  little 
part  in  the  general  management  of  Church  affairs.  But  a 
truly  momentous  crisis  had  now  arrived,  before  which  his 
strong  purpose  of  retirement  gave  way,  and  every  energy 
of  his  nature  was  devoted  to  the  guidance  of  the  Church 
through  the  troubled  and  perilous  passage.  He  entered  the 
conflict  with  an  anxious  but  unembarrassed  spirit.      Mere 


iET.  59.  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  1839.  113 

party  ties  had  but  little  hold  on  him.  With  many  of  the 
opinions  held,  and  many  of  the  sentiments  uttered  by  some 
of  the  most  prominent  evangelical  leaders,  he  had  no  sym- 
pathy. He  did  not  participate  in  the  conviction  that  the 
right  to  choose  their  own  ministers  belonged  by  divine  dona- 
tion to  the  people.  He  disliked  when  the  contest  on  which 
the  Church  had  now  fairly  entered  was  represented  as  a 
contest  for  the  rights  of  the  Christian  people  ;  nor  could  he 
approve  of  the  phraseology,  rife  now  in  some  quarters,  ac- 
cording to  which  the  privileges  of  communicants,  in  the 
matter  of  the  appointment  of  their  religious  instructors,  was 
spoken  of  as  part  of  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  had  made 
his  people  free.  Believing  in  the  existence  of  no  divine 
right,  wedded  to  no  abstract  theory,  his  position  was,  that 
the  Church  should  be  left  free  to  carry  out  her  own  conscien- 
tious convictions — should  be  left  unbribed  and  unfettered  to 
do  what  she  thought  best  for  the  Christian  good  of  the 
people  ;  and,  as  his  own  convictions  most  cordially  went 
along  with  what  the  Church  had  declared  to  be  a  funda- 
mental principle  of  her  policy,  he  was  prepared  at  any 
hazard  to  take  any  necessary  step,  at  once  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Church's  general  freedom,  and  the  protection 
of  the  Church's  humblest  congregations.  The  General 
Assembly,  upon  whose  deliberations  and  decisions  so  much 
was  now  depending,  met  at  Edinburgh  on  the  16th  May, 
1839.  Scarcely  had  the  necessary  preliminaries  been  con- 
cluded, when  Dr.  Cook,  the  leader  of  the  Moderate  party,  rose 
to  say  that  there  was  one  question  of  such  pre-eminent  im- 
portance, that  he  wished  the  day  for  its  discussion  to  be  fixed 
without  delay  ;  intimating,  at  the  same  time,  his  intention 
to  submit  a  resolution  regarding  it  to  the  House.  On  the 
following  Monday,  three  motions  were  read  and  tabled  ;  one 
by  Dr.  Cook,  one  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  and  one  by  Dr.  Muir. 
The  discussion  was  fixed  to  be  on  Wednesday,  and  for 
several  hours  before  the  Assembly  convened  upon  that  day, 
the  house  was  crowded  in  every  corner.      The  days  were 


114  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

past  when  the  Edinburgh  pubhc  suffered  an  Assembly  to 
go  by  with  httle  other  notice  than  that  which  the  miUtary 
cortege  of  the  Commissioner  excited.  Interests  were  now 
at  stake,  in  which  Scotland's  remotest  extremities  were 
concerned  ;  and  the  great  heart  of  the  body  ecclesiastic  beat 
fuller  and  stronger  as  each  returning  Assembly  came  round. 
Participating  in  those  deep  and  solemn  feelings,  which  had 
gathered  many  a  group  of  the  faithful  over  the  land  around 
the  Throne  of  Grace,  the  General  Assembly,  before  the 
debate  began,  called  upon  the  venerable  minister  of  Kilsyth 
to  engage  in  prayer.  Dr.  Cook  opened  the  discussion.  His 
motion  was  to  the  effect  that  the  Assembly  should  hold  the 
Veto  Law  as  abrogated,  and  proceed  as  if  it  never  had 
passed.  Dr.  Chalmers's  motion  consisted  of  three  parts  : — 
The  first  embraced  an  acknowledgment  of,  and  acquiescence 
in,  the  loss  of  the  temporalities  of  the  living  of  Auchterarder ; 
the  second  contained  the  expression  of  a  resolution  that  the 
principle  of  Non-Intrusion  was  not  to  be  abandoned  ;  and 
the  third  proposed  the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  confer 
with  the  Government,  in  order  to  prevent  any  further  collis- 
ion between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities.  The 
magnificent  oration  in  which  Dr.  Chalmers  supported  this 
motion  occupied  three  hours  in  its  delivery  ;  and  so  great 
and  exhausting  was  the  effort,  that  he  had  to  retire  from 
the  Court  immediately,  nor  was  he  able  to  return  to  give 
his  vote  at  the  close  of  the  debate.  The  discussion  had 
commenced  at  twelve  o'olock  on  Wednesday  the  2 2d  ;  and 
at  two  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  following  day,  when  it 
was  announced,  as  the  result  of  the  vote  that  Dr.  Chalmers's 
motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  49,  the  irrepressible 
cheer  that  burst  from  the  galleries,  told  in  what  direction, 
and  how  strongly,  the  popular  current  was  running.  It 
will  not  be  deemed  an  overloading  of  these  pages,  to  present 
anew,  and  thus  preserve,  a  few  passages  from  Dr.  Chalmers's 
speech.  Having  disclaimed  all  connection  with  any  section 
of  the  Assembly,  having  explained  the  personal  position  which 


.^T.  59.  DR.  CHALMERS'S  SPEECH.  115 

he  occupied,  and  touched  on  a  few  preliminary  topics — 
«'  But  we  now  pass  on,"  said  he,  "  to  vindicate  another  part 
of  the  motion,  by  which  it  is  imphed  that,  meanwhile,  and 
previous  to  the  settlement  of  the  question  between  the 
Legislature  and  ourselves,  the  Veto  Law  shall  continue  the 
unrepealed  law  of  the  Church.  Is  there  not  rebellion  here, 
it  may  be  asked — and  that  too  against  an  authority  to 
which  hitherto  we  have  been  professing  the  homage  of  so 
much  loyalty  and  respect  ?  By  the  sentence  of  the  Civil 
Courts  this  law  is  pronounced  to  be  illegal :  and  if  we 
persist  in  keeping  by  it,  we  incur  of  course  the  forfeiture  of 
certain  temporalities.  But  how  can  we,  it  is  said,  how  can 
we,  after  such  a  sentence,  persist  in  yielding  obedience  to  it  as 
a  law  of  the  Church,  without  incurring  the  further  charge 
of  disobedience  to  the  law  of  the  land  ? 

"  To  answer  these  questions  I  must  fall  back  on  what  T 
conceive  to  be  the  true  theory  of  the  connection  between 
Church  and  State. 

"  When  this  alliance  then  was  first  entered  on,  the  first 
movement  was  made  by  the  State.  The  overture  came  from 
them,  on  what  motive,  whether  of  piety  or  patriotism,  or  any 
other  cause,  it  matters  not — if  it  was  such  an  overture  as 
could  be  righteously,  in  which  case  it  might  be  most  rejoicingly, 
consented  to  by  the  Church,  who  might  bless  God  in  orisons  of 
the  devoutest  gratitude,  in  that,  by  aid  of  the  civil  magistrate, 
a  way  had  been  opened  up  for  the  lessons  of  the  Gospel,  for 
the  words  and  the  message  of  everlasting  life  to  all  the  popu- 
lation. The  boon  on  the  one  side  was  a  maintenance  for  the 
Church's  laborers,  who  might  be  distributed  over  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  act  each  as  the  herald  of  salvation 
on  his  own  assigned  portion  of  the  territory.  The  return  on 
the  other  side  was  an  immense  blessing  to  the  State — that 
best  security,  not  for  the  temporal  and  eternal  happiness  of 
individuals  only,  but  for  the  moral  and  political  and  the  eco- 
nomic well-being  of  every  community — a  universal  Christian 
education. 


116  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

"  Such  then  is  the  precise  footing:  on  which  the  Church 
enters  into  that  alliance  with  the  State,  by  which  it  becomes 
what  is  termed  a  National  Church,  or  an  Established  Church, 
or  a  Pveligious  National  Establishment.  It  may  have  subsisted 
for  many  ages  as  a  Christian  Church,  with  all  its  tenets  and 
its  usages,  not  as  prescribed  by  human  authority,  but  as  found- 
ed either  on  the  Word  of  God  or  on  their  own  independent 
views  of  Christian  expediency — meaning  by  this,  their  own 
views  of  what  is  best  for  the  good  of  unperishable  souls.  None 
of  these  things  were  given  up  to  the  State  at  the  time  when 
the  Church  entered  into  an  alliance  with  it ;  but  one  and  all 
of  them  remained  as  intact  and  inviolable  after  this  alliance 
as  before  it.  She  did  not  make  over  her  liberties  to  the  State, 
at  the  time  when  she  entered  into  fellowship  with  it,  in  this 
new  character  of  a  National  Establishment — she  only  made 
over  her  services.  That  was  the  return,  the  only  return  she 
could  make,  if  along  with  the  new  she  was  to  retain  her  old 
character  as  a  Christian  Church  ;  and  I  will  say  an  adequate, 
nay,  an  overpassing  return,  for  the  maintenance  of  her  clergy- 
men. Her  office  henceforward  was  to  dispense  the  lessons 
of  Christianity  to  the  people  of  that  sovereign  who  gave  sub- 
sistence to  her  laborers  ;  but  still  it  was  no  other  than  the 
Christianity  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Her  subsistence 
came  from  the  State  ;  but  her  formularies  and  her  doctrine, 
and  her  discipline,  and  the  methods  of  her  ecclesiastical  polity, 
and  her  articles  of  faith,  and  her  methods  of  worship  and  of 
government,  were  all  her  own. 

"  It  would  serve,  I  think,  greatly  to  clear  this  argument, 
did  we  make  careful  discrimination  between  the  Church  of 
Scotland  viewed  as  a  National  Establishment,  and  the  Church 
of  Scotland  viewed  as  a  Church  of  Christ.  There  are  certain 
obligations  incumbent  upon  her  quasi  a  Christian  Church, 
and  there  are  certain  privileges  which  belong  to  her  quasi 
an  Establishment.  Now,  I  hold  it  to  be  quite  an  axiom,  a 
first  and  elementary  truth,  that  we  are  never,  in  any  instance, 
to  depart  from  the  obligations  which  lie  upon  us  as  a  Christian 


/ET.  59.  DR.  CHALMERS'S  SPEECH  117 

Church,  for  the  sake  either  of  obtaining  or  perpetuating  the 
privileges  which  belong  to  us  as  an  Established  Church.  But 
though,  on  the  one  hand,  we  can  not  either  rescind  or  refrain 
from  enacting  what  we  hold  to  be  vital,  ere  we  make  a  vol- 
untary withdrawment  of  ourselves  from  the  State,  we  should 
make  every  attempt  to  obtain  its  concurrence,  and  that  in 
order  to  avert  the  calamity  of  a  disruption  betwixt  us  ;  and 
this  too  in  the  face  of  every  ungenerous  misinterpretation,  to 
which  our  desire  of  preserving  the  connection  between  the 
parties,  with  all  its  advantages,  is  liable.  There  may  be  no- 
thing of  the  sycophantish,  nothing  of  the  sordid,  in  the  most 
strenuous  attempts  which  principle  will  suffer  us  to  make,  to 
maintain  unbroken  the  alliance  between  Church  and  State. 
On  the  contrary,  it  may  be  the  high  aim  of  Christian  patriot- 
ism, prosecuted  in  the  spirit  and  with  the  apostolic  zeal  of  a 
devoted  missionary,  intent  on  the  spiritual  well-being  of  the 
country's  population,  and  therefore  desirous  of  enlisting  the 
energies  of  the  civil  government,  in  the  holy  enterprise  of  bring- 
ing the  lessons  of  the  Gospel  within  the  reach  and  hearing  of 
all  the  families  of  the  land.  Every  method  should  be  tried 
to  preserve,  or  if  we  have  unfortunately  lost  it,  to  recover 
the  favor  and  confidence  of  our  rulers.  But  meanwhile,  till 
we  make  this  out,  we  have  nothing-for  it  but  to  administer 
our  owm  affairs  in  conformity  with,  and  under  the  guidance 
and  authority  of  our  own  statute-book.  Now,  it  was  by  the 
deliberate  voice  and  judgment  of  the  Church  that  this  law,  so 
obnoxious  in  other  quarters,  found  its  way  there ;  and  though 
it  never  should  be  consented  to  by  the  State  it  must  continue 
to  be  our  regulator  till  rescinded  by  the  same  power  to  which 
it  owes  its  enactment,  and  on  no  other  considerations,  I  trust, 
than  those  of  principle  and  of  the  public  weal.  Whether  a  law 
is  to  be  established  or  repealed  by  us,  let  me  never  see  the 
day  when  we  shall  be  constrained  to  either  the  one  or  the  other 
by  a  force  ab  extra,  or  by  any  principle  whatever  distinct  from 
our  own  spontaneous  views  of  what  is  best  for  the  interests  of 
Christ's  spiritual  kingdom.   The  only  moving  principle  which 


118  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

we  should  acknowledge  is  ihe  '  77iaj us  bonum  ecclesice;''  and 
that  not  in  any  sordid  or  secular  meaning  of  the  term,  but  in 
the  sacred,  the  celestial,  the  high,  and  wholly  disinterested 
sense  of  the  '  majus  bonimi  popuW — the  greater  good  of  their 
unperishable  souls.  In  other  words,  we  should  decide  this 
and  every  other  question  on  considerations  purely  religious 
and  ecclesiastical  alone. 

"  But  let  me  now,  instead  of  looking  forward  into  conse- 
quences, give  some  idea  to  the  Assembly  of  the  extent  of  that 
degradation  and  helplessness,  which,  if  we  do  submit  to  this 
decision  of  the  House  of  Lords,  have  been  actually  and  already 
inflicted  upon  us — a  degradation  to  which  the  Church  of 
England,  professing  the  King  to  be  their  head,  never  would 
submit  ;  and  to  which  the  Church  of  Scotland,  professing 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  be  their  head,  never  can.  You 
know  that  by  the  practice  of  our  Church  the  induction  and 
the  ordination  go  together.  We  regard  both  as  spiritual 
acts  ;  but  by  the  practice  of  the  Church  of  England,  the 
two  are  separated  in  point  of  time  from  each  other,  and  as 
they  look  only  upon  the  ordination  as  spiritual,  this  lays  them 
open  to  such  civil  mandates  and  civil  interdicts,  as  we  have 
never  been  accustomed  to  receive  in  the  questions  which 
arise  on  the  subject  of  induction  into  parishes.  But  ask  any 
English  ecclesiastic,  whether  the  Bishop  would  receive  an 
order  from  any  civil  court  whatever  on  the  matter  of  ordi- 
nation ;  and  the  instant,  the  universal  reply  is,  that  he  would 
not.  In  other  words,  we  should  be  degraded  far  beneath 
the  level  of  the  sister  Church,  if  we  remain  in  connection 
with  the  State,  and  submit  to  this  new  ordinance,  or  if  you 
will,  to  this  new  interpretation  of  their  old  ordinances.  I 
hold  in  my  hands  a  book  entitled  a  History  of  the  Romish 
and  English  Hierarchies,  by  James  Abbott,  A.  B.,  of  Queen's 
College,  Cambridge.  He  was  refused  ordination  by  the 
Bishop  of  Norwich,  and  afterward  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  to  whom  he  carried  his  case  by  appeal.  Upon 
this  he  addressed  a  letter  to  the  King  as  head  of  the  Church, 


JET.  59.  DR.  CHALMERS'S  SPEECH.  119 

dated  Bracondale  House,  Norwich,  November  27,  1830. 
Of  this  letter,  in  which  he  details  the  circumstances  of  his 
case,  the  following  is  the  concluding  paragraph  :  '  I,  there- 
fore, earnestly  invoke  your  Majesty,  as  head  of  the  Church, 
and  father  of  your  people,  graciously  to  consider  my  prayer, 
to  remove  this  hindrance  to  my  obtaining  Episcopal  ordina- 
tion ;  in  order  that  your  Majesty's  royal  prerogative  may 
secure  to  me  the  privileges  and  rights  of  a  denizen  and  of  a 
British  graduate.'  The  following  is  Lord  Melbourne's  reply, 
written  by  his  secretary  : 

"  'Whitehall,  29lk  December,  1830. 
"  '  Sir — I  am  directed  by  Lord  Melbourne  to  acknowl- 
edge the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  27th  instant,  and  to 
inform  you  that  his  lordship  can  not  advise  the  King  to  give 
any  command  for  controlling  the  judgment  of  a  bishop  on 
the  subject  of  ordrnation  to  holy  orders. — I  am.  Sir,  your 
obedient  humble  servant,  S.  M.  Phillips. 

'James  Abbott,  Esq., 
Bracondale  House,  Norwich.' 

"  To  what  position  then  are  we  brought  if  we  give  in  to 
the  opposite  motion,  and  proceed  in  consequence  to  the  ordi- 
nation of  Mr.  Young  ?  To  such  a  position  as  the  bishops  of 
England,  with  all  the  Erastianism  which  has  been  charged, 
and  to  a  great  degree  I  think  falsely  charged,  upon  that  Es- 
tablishment, never,  never  would  consent  to  occupy.  Many  of 
them  would  go  to  the  prison  and  the  death  rather  than  sub- 
mit to  such  an  invasion  on  the  functions  of  the  sacred  office. 
We  read  of  an  old  imprisonment  of  Bishops,  which  led  to 
the  greatest  and  most  glorious  political  emancipation  that 
ever  took  place  in  the  history  of  England.  Let  us  not  be 
mistaken.  Should  the  emancipation  of  our  Church  require 
it,  there  is  the  same  strength  of  high  and  holy  determination 
in  this  our  land.  There  are  materials  here  too  for  uphold- 
ing the  contest  between  principle  and  power ;  and  enough  of 
the  blood  and  spirit  of  the  olden  time  for  sustaining  that  holy 


1^6  *  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

warfare,  where,  as  in  former  days,  the  inflictions  of  the  one 
party  were  met  with  a  patience  and  determination  invin- 
cible in  the  sufferings  of  the  other." 

Having  quoted  also  from  a  speech  of  the  Bishop  of  Exeter, 
in  which  that  prelate  had  declared  it  to  be  his  intention  not 
to  obey  a  certain  law,  though  it  should  receive  the  sanction 
of  the  Legislature,  Dr.  Chalmers  concluded  with  some  re- 
marks on  the  principle  of  the  Veto  Law. 

"  I  am  fully  prepared  for  all  the  wanton  ridicule  which 
has  been  cast  on  a  popular  antipathy  without  reasons,  or 
such  reasons  as  can  be  stated  before  a  bench  of  judges  for 
them  to  judge  upon.  The  Dean  of  Faculty,  in  his  pleading 
before  the  Lords  of  Session,  makes  repeated  and  contempt- 
uous allusions  to  this  mystic  and  incomprehensible  something, 
too  shadowy  for  expression,  too  ethereal  to  be  bodied  forth 
in  language,  and  on  which  we  would  reject  the  presentee — 
grounding  our  rejection  on  a  veto,  itself  without  grounds,  or 
at  least  such  grounds  as  are  capable  of  being  set  forth  and 
made  intelligible  to  the  minds  of  other  men.  Now,  if  there 
be  one  thing  of  which  we  are  more  confident  than  another, 
it  is  that  here  we  have  all  philosophy  upon  our  side,  and  all 
that  is  sound  in  the  experience  of  human  nature.  Not  in 
Christianity  alone,  but  in  a  thousand  other  subjects  of  human 
thought,  there  may  be  antipathies  and  approvals,  resting  on 
a  most  solid  and  legitimate  foundation — not  properly,  there- 
fore, without  reasons,  but  reasons  deeply  felt,  yet  incapable 
of  being  adequately  communicated.  And  if  there  be  one 
topic  more  than  another  on  which  this  phenomenon  of  the 
human  spirit  should  be  most  frequently  realized,  it  is  the 
topic  of  Christianity — a  religion  the  manifestation  of  whose 
truth  is  unto  the  conscience  ;  and  the  response  or  assenting 
testimony  to  which,  as  an  object  of  instant  discernment, 
might  issue  from  the  deep  recesses  of  their  moral  nature,  on 
the  part  of  men  Math  whom  it  is  a  felt  reality — able,  there- 
fore to  articulate  their  belief,  yet  not  able  to  articulate  the 
reasons  of  it.      There  is  much,  and  that  the  weightiest  part 


JET.  59.  OR.  CHALMERS'S  SPEECH.  121 

by  far  of  the  internal  evidence  for  Christianity,  that  rests  on 
the  adaptations  which  obtain  between  its  objective  truths 
and  the  felt  necessities  or  desires  of  our  subjective  nature — 
adaptations  powerfully  and  intimately  felt  by  many  a  pos- 
sessor of  that  nature,  who  is  yet  unable  to  propound  them  in 
language,  far  less  to  state  or  vindicate  them  at  the  bar  of 
judgment.  And  if  ever  the  prerogatives  of  the  human  con- 
science were  at  one  time  more  cruelly  trampled  on  than  at 
another,  it  has  been  within  the  last  century,  and  at  the  bar 
of  this  House — M^hen  the  collective  mind  of  a  congregation, 
who  both  knew  and  loved  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  has 
been  contemptuously  set  at  naught ;  and  the  best,  the  holi- 
est feelings  of  our  Scottish  patriarchs,  by  lordly  oppressors 
sitting  in  state  and  judgment  over  them,  were  barbarously 
scorned.  In  that  age  of  violent  settlements,  these  simple, 
these  unlettered  men  of  a  rustic  congregation,  could  say  no 
more,  yet  said  most  truly  of  the  intruded  minister,  that  he 
did  not  preach  the  Gospel,  and  that  in  the  .doctrine  he  gave 
there  was  no  food  for  the  nourishment  of  their  souls.  I  can 
•not  image  a  more  painful  spectacle  than  such  men  as  these, 
the  worthies  of  the  olden  time,  at  once  tbe  pride  and  the 
preserving  salt  of  our  Scottish  commonwealth,  placed  under 
the  treatment  and  rough  handling  of  an  able,  jeering,  un- 
godly advocate  ;  while  coarse  and  contemptuous  clergymen, 
booted  and  spurred  for  riding  Committees,  were  looking  on 
and  enjoying  the  scene  ;  and  a  loud  laugh  from  the  seats  of 
these  assembled  scorners  completed  the  triumph  over  the  re- 
ligious sensibilities  of  men,  who  could  but  reclaim  with  their 
hearts  and  not  with  their  voices.  This  was  the  policy  of 
Dr.  Robertson,  recently  lauded  in  high  places — a  policy 
which  has  dissevered  our  pppulation  from  our  Church,  and 
shed  most  withering  influence  over  the  religion  of  the  families 
of  Scotland.  Re-enact  this  policy  if  you  will,  and  you  place 
your  Kirk  as  a  National  Establishment  on  the  brink  of  its 
sure  annihilation.  Have  a  care,  ye  professing  friends  of  order 
and  loyalty,  have  a  care  lest,  by  a  departure  from  the  line 

VOL.  IV. — F 


122  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  183&. 

of  resolute  and  unswerving  principle,  you  strip  the  Church 
of  all  moral  weight  in  the  eyes  of  the  community.  Think 
of  the  deadly  enemies  by  whom  we  are. encompassed  ;  and 
have  a  care  lest,  by  one  hair-breadth  of  deviation  from  the 
path  of  integrity  and  honor,  you  cause  the  hearts  of  these 
Philistines  to  rejoice. 

*•  This  discernment  of  the  Gospel,  this  just  perception  of 
truth  on  the  part  of  a  home-bred  peasantry,  though  unable 
to  assign  the  principles  or  reasons,  is  not  more  marvelous 
than  is  their  just  perception  of  beauty,  though  unable  to 
assign  the  philosophy  of  taste.  Hear  the  most  philosophical 
of  all  our  poets,  Akenside,  who,  in  his  '  Pleasures  of  Imagin- 
ation,' bids  us 

"  '  Ask  the  swain 

Who  journeys  homeward  from  a  summer  day's 

Long  labor,  why,  forgetful  of  his  toils 

And  due  repose,  he  loiters  to  behold 

The  sunshine  gleaming  as  through  amber  clouds 

O'er  all  the  western  sky.     Full  soon,  I  ween, 

His  rude  expression  and  untutor'd  air, 

Beyond  the  power  of  language,  will  unfold 

The  form  of  beauty  smiling  at  his  heart, 

How  lovely,  how  commanding  !' — '  Heaven, 

In  every  breast  hath  sown  these  early  seeds 

Of  love  and  admiration.' 

"  In  the  one  case  our  peasant  feels,  and  correctly  feels,  an 
admiration,  which,  unskilled  in  metaphysics,  he  can  not  vin- 
dicate ;  in  the  other  he  knows  the  truth,  though,  imskilled 
in  logic,  he  can  neither  state  nor  defend  the  reasons  of  it. 

•'  '  It  has  been  freqently  remarked,'  says  Dugald  Stewart, 
'  that  the  justest  and  most  efficient  understandings  are  often 
possessed  by  men  who  are  incapable  of  stating  to  others,  or 
even  to  themselves,  the  grounds  on  which  they  proceed  in 
forming  their  decisions.' — «An  anecdote  which  I  heard  many 
years  ago,  of  a  late  very  eminent  judge  (Lord  Mansfield),  has 
often  recurred  to  my  memory,  while  reflecting  on  these  appa- 
rent inconsistencies  of  intellectual  character.  A  friend  of  his 
who  possessed  excellent  natural  talents,  but  who  had  been 


JET.  59.  DR.  CHALMERS'S  SPEECH.  123 

prevented,  by  his  professional  duties  as  a  naval  officer,  from 
bestowing  on  them  all  the  cultivation  of  which  they  were 
susceptible,  having  been  recently  appointed  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Jamaica,  happened  to  express  some  doubts  of  his 
competency  to  preside  in  the  Court  of  Chancery.  Lord 
Mansfield  assured  him  that  he  would  find  the  difficulty  not 
so  great  as  he  apprehended.  "Trust,"  he  said,  "to  your 
own  good  sense  in  forming  your  opinions  ;  but  beware  of 
attempting  to  state  the  grounds  of  your  judgments.  The 
judgment  will  probably  be  right ;  the  argument  will  infalli- 
bly be  wrong."  '* 

"  I  would  take  the  verdict  of  a  congregation  just  as  I  take 
the  verdict  of  a  jury,  without  reasons.  Their  judgment  is 
what  I  want,  not  the  grounds  of  their  judgment.  Give  me 
the  aggregate  will ;  and  tell  me  only  that  it  is  founded  on 
t-he  aggregate  conscience  of  a  people  who  love  their  Bibles, 
and  to  whom  the  preaching  of  the  Cross  is  precious  ;  and  to 
the  expression  of  that  will,  to  the  voice  of  the  collective 
mind  of  that  people,  not  as  sitting  in  judgment  on  the  minor 
insignificancies  of  mode  and  circumstance  and  things  of  ex- 
ternal observation,  but  as  sitting  in  judgment  on  the  great 
subject-matter  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus — to  such  a  voice, 
coming  in  the  spirit,  and  with  the  desires  of  moral  earnest- 
ness from  such  a  people,  I  for  one  would  yield  the  profound- 
est  reverence." 

^  Stewards  Elements,  vol.  ii.,  8vo,  p.  103,  106. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

FIRST  EFFORT  OF  THE  NON-INTRUSION  COMMITTEE- 
DEPUTATION  TO  LONDON— INTERVIEWS  WITH  THE 
LEADING  POLITICIANS— REPORT  TO  THE  ASSEMBLY'S 
COMMISSION— EXTRACTS  FROM  PRIVATE  JOURNAL. 

The  first  effort  of  the  important  Committee  appointed 
under  Dr.  Chalmers's  resolution,  was  to  obtain  from  the 
Legislature  a  confirmation,  as  to  civil  consequences,  of  the 
Veto  Law.  There  was  much  to  recommend  that  law,  as 
the  basis  of  their  earliest  negotiations.  It  embodied  the 
mildest  form  in  which  conclusive  effect  could  be  given  to 
the  will  of  the  people.  During  five  years,  and  out  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  settlements  which  had  taken  place  under 
it,  in  ten  instances  only  had  the  power  which  it  conferred 
been  exercised.  Some  of  its  greatest  ecclesiastical  enemies 
had  expressed  their  surprise  and  satisfaction  at  the  quiet 
manner  of  its  operation,  nor  had  any  opposition  been  elicited 
from  the  patrons  of  Scotland.  There  was  one  special  reason, 
besides,  for  counting  upon  the  prompt  aid  of  the  Government 
now  in  power.  It  was  with  the  express  concurrence  and 
sanction  of  that  Government  that  the  Veto  Law  had  orig- 
inally been  passed  ;^  and  if,  in  carrying  out  a  measure  to 
which  it  virtually  had  been  a  party,  the  Church  had  become 

*  One  of  the  earliest  expressions  of  Government  countenance  to  the 
Veto  Law,  is  contained  in  the  following  letter  of  Lord  Jeffrey,  then 
Lord  Advocate  : 

"  HousK  OF  Lords,  13ih  May,  1833. 

"  My  dear  Dr.  Chalmers — Your  obliging  letter  of  the  9th  has 
just  been  brought  to  me  here.  I  wrote  very  fully  to  the  Solicitor  on 
Thursday  last,  on  the  important  subject  to  which  you  refer ;  and  di- 
rected him  to  communicate  that  letter,  or  the  substance  of  it,  to  you. 
If  this  has  been  done,  you  will  find  a  satisfactory  answer  to  the  ques- 


^T.  59.  LETTER  TO  DR.  GORDON.  125 

involved  in  the  most  painful  perplexity,  it  was  natural  to 
expect  that  the  generous  hand  of  the  Government  would  in- 
stantly be  extended  to  extricate  her. 

In  obedience  to  Lord  Melbourne's  advice,  and  as  the  best 
way  of  opening  their  negotiations,  the  Committee  resolved  to 
send  a  large  and  influential  deputation  to  London.  As  there 
was  a  strong  desire  that  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  convener  of  the 
Committee,  should  head  this  deputation,  and  as  he  was  now 
absent  on  his  northern  Church  Extension  tour.  Dr.  Gordon 
was  commissioned  to  write  to  him  to  that  effect.  He  re- 
ceived the  following  reply  : 

"Stonehaven,  June  22d,  1839. 

"  My  dear  Sir — The  effects  that  may  arise  from  the 
measure  of  a  deputation  to  London  are  so  very  uncertain, 
that  I  could  not  have  incurred  the  responsibility  of  advising 
it ;  but  now  that  it  is  resolved  upon,  I,  for  the  very  same  rea- 
son, could  as  little  incur  the  responsibility  either  of  resisting 
or  of  refusing  to  sanction  it.  After  Lord  Melbourne's  reply, 
it  was  very  natural  for  the  Committee  to  feel  themselves  as 
if  shut  up  to  the  necessity  of  adopting  the  resolution  which 
they  have  come  to  ;  and  as  I  have  incurred  no  absolute  en- 
gagements beyond  Aberdeen,  I  shall,  if  God  will,  so  soon  as 
I  am  quit  of  these,  take  the  first  lawful  opportunity  by  steam 
of  making  my  way  to  the  metropolis. 

"  And  now,  my  dear  Sir,  let  me  express  my  earnest  hope 
and  entreaty,  that  you  will  join  us.      I  do  honestly  think  it 

tion  you  now  propose :  and  if  it  has  not,  I  believe  I  can  not  be  much 
mistaken  in  saying,  that  I  have  the  strongest  conviction  that  the  Gov- 
ernment must  be  much  gratified  by  the  Assembly's  adopting  such  a 
resolution  as  you  mention,  and  that  I  entertain  little  doubt  that  they 
would  be  anxious  to  give  effect  to  it,  by  any  legislative  measure  which 
might  be  thought  necessary  for  that  purpose — though  I  must  guard 
myself  against  the  risk  of  being  supposed  officially  authorized  to  an- 
nounce such  a  resolution,  or  formally  to  pledge  them  to  such  a  pro- 
ceeding.— Believe  me  always,  very  faithfully  yours, 

"  F.  Jeffrey." 


126  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

of  the  greatest  practical  importance  that  you  should  ;  and 
as  it  otherwise  would  not  be  in  keeping  with  the  noble 
appearance  which  you  made  the  other  day  before  the  Lords 
in  Edinburgh  (a  far  more  formidable  looking  set  than  any 
Lords  in  London),  and  for  which  the  Church  of  Scotland 
owes  you  a  debt  of  gratitude. 

"  It  is  right,  however,  that  the  Committee  should  know 
that  on  the  occasion  of  the  last  deputation  to  Government 
from  the  Church,  Lord  Melbourne  expressed  a  hope  or  wish 
that  '  that  d — d  fellow  Chalmers  was  not  among  them.'  I 
have  not  the  vanity  to  think  that  his  Lordship  cared  whether 
the  person  was  present  or  absent.  It  was  the  embarrassing 
proposition  with  which  he  was  charged,  and  which  he  was 
prepared  to  urge  in  every  possible,  if  right,  way,  that  prob- 
ably annoyed  him.  But  should  he  still  manifest  the  same 
antipathy,  this  will  not  restrain  me  from  doing  all  the  good 
I  can  in  other  quarters.  It  is  the  chance  of  this  which  en- 
ters very  strongly  into  the  determining  force  that  leads  me 
to  join  the  deputation.  I  am  very  strongly  of  opinion,  that 
as  this  is  in  no  shape  a  political  question,  we  should  with 
the  full  knowledge  of  the  one  party,  hold  explicit  and  full 
communication  with  the  other  party  in  the  State — all  should 
be  above  boards  with  both.  Nor  should  we  consent  to  the 
introduction  of  any  question  into  Parliament,  without  a  pre- 
vious reasonable  assurance  of  its  passing  favorably  through 
both  Houses. 

"Allow  me  to  say  that  both  you  and  Mr.  Candlish  ought 
TO  preach  when  in  London. — I  am,  &c., 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

On  the  4th  and  5th  of  July,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  tossing  on 
the  German  Ocean  on  his  way  to  London.^  For  reading 
upon  the  passage  he  had  supplied  himself  with  some  of  the 

*  The  roll  of  the  sea  was  so  heavy  as  to  prevent  most  of  the  pas- 
sengers from  attempting  one  "  useful  operation,'"  which,  notwithstand- 
ing, he  resolutely  carried  through.  "  I  have  a  hereditary  intrepidity," 
he  writes,  in  detailing  this,  "in  the  matter  of  shaving.     My  father  had 


JET.  59.  LORD  JOHN  RUSSELL.  127 

recent  pamphlets  on  the  Church  question,  to  two  of  which 
he  thus  alludes  :  "  Hugh  Miller's  Letter  to  Lord  Brougham 
is  a  very  noble  composition.  =9^  *  *  Finished  Gray's  pam- 
phlet, which  I  pronounce  to  be  an  admirable  composition, 
and  written  with  very  great  force  both  of  argument  and  ex- 
pression," His  time  in  London  was  chiefly  occupied  by 
formal  interviews  with  the  leading  political  men  of  both  par- 
ties in  the  State. 

''Saturday,  July  Qtk. — I  called  on  Lord  Aberdeen.  A 
long  conversation  with  him :  friendly  and  intellectual,  but 
not  thoroughly  satisfied,  and  refused  to  pledge  himself  I 
was  a  little  damped.  He  rose  in  my  estimation,  though  I 
can  see  how  strong  the  barrier  is  in  the  way  of  a  thorough 
understanding.  *  *  *  I  prevailed  with  Dr.  Gordon,  very 
much  against  his  will  to  be  the  spokesman  with  Lord  John 
Russell  to-day,  even  as  he  was  with  Lord  Melbourne  yester- 
day— a  measure  of  great  public  policy  as  well  as  personal 
prudence  on  my  part.  This  would  not  and  did  not  prevent 
me  from  striking  in  when  I  chose,  and  I  did  not  want  the 
trouble  of  conning  over  a  formal  conversation  on  the  matter. 
#  *  *  Thirteen  of  us  moved  to  the  Home  Office  at  half- 
past  four  o'clock.  Lord  Belhaven  said,  that  it  was  better 
that  as  Dr.  Gordon  was  the  speaker  at  Lord  Melbourne's, 
he  should  be  the  speaker  here  too.  Afraid  somewhat,  I  think, 
of  my  effusions  ;  but  they  will  not  be  able  to  restrain  them. 
Let  me  enumerate  the  thirteen,  whom  I  counted  and  looked 
over  as  we  sat  in  the  ante-chamber:  Lord  Belhaven,  Dr. 
Chalmers,  Dr.  Gordon,  Dr.  Dewar,  Dr.  Makellar,  Mr.  Cand- 
iish,  the  Procurator,   Mr.  Alexander,   Captain  Trotter,  Mr. 

no  fear  in  putting  himself  into  the  hands  of  a  drunken  barber,  John 
Bruce,  the  great  Anstruther  operator  in  my  beardless  days.  He  some- 
times came  staggering  into  my  father's  back-shop  with  his  razor  in 
his  hand  ;  yet  my  father  shrunk  not,  but  submitted  himself  to  him,  for 
he  had  uniformly  found,  that  the  moment  John  got  him  by  the  nose, 
he  steadied  himself  thereby,  and  got  through  the  whole  process  in  per- 
fect safety,  and  without  a  scar." 


128  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALRIERS.  1839v 

Bruce,  Mr.  Hog,  Mr.  Dimlop,  Mr.  Shaw  Stewart.  In  a 
minute  or  two  we  were  xjalled.  Dr.  Gordon  opened  th& 
matter  very  well ;  and  I  and  the  Procurator  struck  in  ;  but 
such  a  feckless  and  fushionless  entertainment  of  the  matter 
on  the  part  of  his  Lordship  I  never  witnessed  in  my  life.  It 
was  '  N,  nihil,  naething,'  as  we  used  to  say  to  the  tee-totum. 
I  could  not  but  laugh  when  we  came  out,  and  looked  at  the 
blank  faces  of  all  and  sundry.  *  *  *  The  Conservatives  are 
all  on  the  qui  vive  about  the  matter,  but  I  can  perceive 
that  they  are  sadly  Mind  and  prejudiced. 

"  Mondo.y,  Qth. — Breakfasted  altogether  at  32  Craven- 
street.  Arranged  our  business.  We  offer  interviews  to  the 
influentials,  and  so  many  of  them  are  accepted,  the  ac- 
ceptors are  parceled  out  among  four  sub-committees  of  three 
each.  Sir  Robert  Peel  fell  to  my  share  for  this  day.  I  have 
two  very  agreeable  colleagues,  Mr.  Hog  and  Mr.  Bruce ;  but 
I  proclaimed  a  liberty  to  any  others  to  accompany  me,  and 
so  there  went  forth  with  us,  beside  the  two  above  mentioned, 
the  Procurator,  Mr.  Alexander,  and  Mr.  Trotter.  With  Sir 
Robert  there  came  in  to  us  Sir  William  Rae,  and  afterward 
Sir  James  Graham.  I  opened  the  case,  and  spoke  altogether 
about  twenty  minutes  or  more.  I  was  nobly  supported  by 
our  friend,  Mr.  Bruce ;  and,  on  the  whole,  it  has  been  our 
first  comfortable  interview  since  I  came  to  LfOndon.  There 
will  be  nothing  done  this  session,  but  that  makes  not  our 
visit  here  useless  or  insignificant.  Sir  Robert  very  bland, 
and  Sir  James  Graham  quite  joyous  and  cordial.  Sir  Will- 
iam Rae  friendly  to  our  object,  I  have  no  doubt.  The  Con- 
servatives don't  promise  so  much,  but  I  have  more  confidence 
in  their  doing  all  they  engage  for.  *  *  *  Went  back  to  32, 
where  so  many  of  us  rendezvoused  for  the  dinner  of  this  day, 
we  set  forth  it  two  carriages,  and  were  conducted  thereby 
to  the  Duke  of  Somerset's,  in  Park  Lane.  Fox  Maule  was 
there,  and  other  Lords  and  M.  P.'s  whom  I  do  not  remem- 
ber. But  the  main  person  was  Lord  Melbourne,  whose 
whole  deportment  was  very  remarkable.      He  shook  hands 


JET.  59.  LORD  MELBOURNE.  129 

with  Dr.  Gordon,  whom  he  had  seen  on  Friday,  and  perhaps 
one  or  two  more  of  the  deputation,  but  brushed  past  me. 
*  *  *  After  these  cuts,  I  of  course  was  thrown  back  on 
my  independence,  and  asserted  it  more  firmly  and  calmly 
than  I  had  ever  done  before.  *  *  *^  The  first  seeming  ap- 
proximation which  Lord  Melbourne  made  to  me  was  to  look 
at  me  while  talking,  as  if  he  was  directing  that  talk  to  me ; 
but  without  some  more  individual  and  distinct  act  of  recog- 
nition, I  was  determined  to  keep  aloof,  and  so  escaped  the 
Premier,  without  exchanging  words  with  him. 

''  Tuesdai/,  9th. — Sallied  forth  to  the  Duke  of  Suther- 
land, whose  natural  but  polished  simplicity  delighted  us  all. 
He  is  not  unhopeful,  though  naturally  ignorant  of  the  merits 
of  the  question.  Had  the  great  kindness  to  conduct  us 
through  some  of  his  rooms  and  best  pictures.  A  very  splen- 
did mansion  :  the  rooms  vie  with  those  of  Versailles  and 
Fontainebleau.  *  *  *  Threaded  my  way  to  Sir  James 
Graham's.  Met  with  a  most  frank  and  friendly  reception. 
Mr.  Colquhoun  came  in,  and  we  fell  to  on  our  Church  ques- 
tion. Sir  James's  views  have  given  me  more  comfort  than 
any  I  have  met  in  coming  to  London.  I  am  particularly 
delighted  with  the  effect  which  my  conversation  in  Sir  Robert 
Peel's,  where  he  was,  had  on  him,  and  still  more  with  the 
effect  of  my  printed  speech,  which  has  converted  him  from 
his  strong  principle  of  a  veto  with  reasons,  whereas  he  now 
acquiesces  in  a  dissent  without  reasons.  See  the  last  pages 
of  the  latest  of  my  works,  and  more  especially  my  quotation 
from  Akenside,  which  has  impressed  Sir  James  very  power- 
fully. Came  away  greatly  relieved  and  comforted ;  for  Sir 
Robert's  extreme  caution  and  coldness  operate  as  a  damper 
on  a  man's  spirits,  whereas  Sir  James  is  a  fine,  hearty,  honest, 
outspeaking  Englishman,  of  great  good  feeling  and  practical 
sense  withal. 

"  Motiday,  loth. — I  sent  a  few  of  our  deputation  to  join 
Lord  Belhaven  at  our  last  and  final  interview  with  the  Pre- 
mier.     It  was.  not  politic  for  me  to  go — me  who  am  in  dis- 


130  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

grace  at  Court — me  who  am  the  hapless  object  of  the  chief 
of  the  Cabinet's  frowns — me  who  must  retire  in  chagrin 
from  pubHc  hfe,  and  spend  in  obscurity  and  pining  neglect 
the  remainder  of  my  days  ;  yet  though  outwardly  scowled 
upon,  inwardly  elated  with  the  honor  of  such  a  distinction, 
— for  quoth  the  poet,  '  A  courtier's  curses  are  exalted 
praise.' " 

At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly's  Commission  held 
on  the  14th  August,  Dr.  Chalmers  gave  in  a  Report  of  the 
Deputation's  proceedings  in  London  : 

."  After  frequent  opportunities  to  converse  with  the  lead- 
ing men  of  both  parties,  they  can  confidently  state,  as  the 
result  of  the  whole,  that  they  are  more  hopeful  than  ever  of 
matters  being  brought  to  a  speedy  and  successful  termina- 
tion. 

"  First,  we  can  state  our  having  received  the  assurance 
of  the  Government,  that  they  were  fully  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  the  subject,  and  would  give  it  their  most  se- 
rious consideration,  and  that  they  would  give  instructions  to 
the  Lord  Advocate  to  prepare,  along  with  the  Procurator,  a 
measure  to  be  submitted  to  the  Cabinet. 

"  And  for  those  who  might  desiderate  something  more  de- 
finite, and  as  they  perhaps  feel,  more  substantial  than  this, 
we  have  the  satisfaction  of  announcing,  if  not  yet  a  specific 
measure  by  the  Legislature,  at  least  a  specific  and  most  im- 
portant concession  to  the  views  of  the  Church  on  the  part 
of  the  Government.  They  have  authorized  us  to  state,  that 
in  the  disposal  of  those  livings  which  are  at  the  nomination 
of  the  Crown,  its  patronage  will  most  certainly  be  exercised 
in  accordance  with  the  existing  law  of  the  Church,  a  resolu- 
tion which  applies  to  nearly  one-third  of  the  parishes  of  Scot- 
land. But  we  reckon  on  a  good  deal  more  than  this.  We 
deem  ourselves  to  have  good  grounds  for  believing,  of  the 
great  majority  of  our  patrons,  that  they  will  not  be  outdone 
by  the  Government,  either  in  a  kind  and  liberal  consideration 


JET.  59.  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMISSION.  131 

for  the  difficulties,  or  in  a  deferential  respect  for  the  laws  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland. 

«'  It  will  not  be  expected  of  us,  in  the  yet  unfinished  and 
necessarily  immature  state  of  our  proceedings,  that  we  can 
be  more  particular.  Suffice  it  to  say,  in  one  word,  that  after 
much  intercourse,  both  with  the  highest  functionaries  of  the 
State  and  many  of  the  highest  standing  and  name  in  public 
afl^airs,  it  is  our  firm  persuasion,  that,  if  we  but  prosecute  and 
sustain  our  part  rightly  here,  there  exists  no  insuperable  ob- 
stacle there  to  the  happy  settlement  of  this  question.  We 
have  every  prospect  of  obtaining  a  large  and  liberal  consent 
on  the  part  of  the  patrons,  and  we  can  not  doubt  that  there 
will  be  a  full  expression  of  sentiment  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
munity— that  the  people  will  make  known  their  wishes  to 
the  Legislature,  and  that,  for  the  liberties  of  a  Church  dear 
to  Scotland,  a  call  will  be  lifted  up  from  its  towns  and  par- 
ishes which  our  rulers  will  not  fail  to  listen  to.  With  such 
helps  and  encouragements  on  our  side,  let  but  the  adherents 
of  this  cause  remain  firm  and  united  in  principle  among  them- 
selves, and  with  the  favor  of  an  approving  God,  any  further 
contest  will  be  given  up  as  unavailing  ;  when,  let  us  fondly 
hope,  all  the  feelings  of  party,  whether  of  triumph  on  one 
side,  because  of  victory,  or  of  humiliation  on  the  other  side, 
because  of  defeat,  shall  be  merged  and  forgotten  in  the  de- 
sires of  a  common  patriotism,  to  the  reassurance  of  all  who 
are  the  friends  of  our  Establishment,  to  the  utter  confusion 
of  those  enemies  who  watch  for  our  halting  and  would  rejoice 
in  our  overthrow." 

Betwixt  the  time  of  his  return  from  London  and  the  meet- 
ing of  Commission  an  interval  of  a  few  days  occurred,  during 
which  Dr.  Chalmers  resumed  his  private  Journal,  which  had 
now  for  a  long  period  been  suspended,  and  which  was  not 
resumed  till  the  spring  of  the  succeeding  year. 

''July  30th A  sad  interval  of  great  action  and  variety, 

with  some  melancholy  defections,  and  no  distinct  spiritual 
progress.      Attempting  this  night  in  Edinburgh  an  hour  of 


132  MExMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

religious  exercise.  Awoke  this  morning  in  heaviness,  against 
which  I  am  sure  there  is  no  right  remedy  but  a  confident 
hold  on  Christ  and  his  righteousness  as  my  righteousness. 
Farther,  sure  that  this  confidence  can  not  hold  along  with 
the  cherishing  of  sin.  O  Lord,  I  pray  for  thy  grace  and 
strength  being  perfected  in  my  weakness.  Give  me  to  ex- 
perience, like  Augustine,  the  light  and  liberty  consequent  on 
the  abandonment  of  every  wrong  affection.  There  is  a  great 
conflict  before  me.  O  my  God,  in  thee  may  I  have  strength 
and  victory.  My  repeated  failures  have  arisen  from  drawing 
upon  myself  as  if  the  power  w^ere  in  me,  instead  of  drawing 
upon  Christ  for  the  power  that  is  out  of  me. 

''July  olst. — Let  me,  in  prospect  of  an  encounter  with 
temptation  this  day,  hold  myself  forewarned  and  be  forearm- 
ed against  a  humiliating  defeat.  But  conscious  of  my  own 
infirmity  I  hereby  implore  the  grace  and  strength  of  Christ. 
May  His  power  rest  upon  me  ;  and  I  lift  this  not  as  a  gen- 
eral prayer,  but  as  a  prayer  for  this  specific  thing.  O  that 
in  this  way  I  could  succeed  in  making  a  real  business  of  my 
sanctification.  How  delightful  it  were  to  hold  communion 
with  God  in  the  midst  even  of  a  festive  party,  a  communion 
with  Him  in  the  exercise  of  duty,  if  not  of  express  and  formal 
devotion. 

''August  2d. — Let  me  renew  my  efforts  on  the  occasion 
that  lies  this  day  before  me.  I  have  been  in  heaviness  from 
various  causes — the  want  of  public  sympathy  with  our 
Church  question — perhaps  the  amount  of  time  not  filled  up 
by  interesting  occupation — the  sense  of  manifold  infirmities 
— a  feeling  to  a  certain  extent  of  wounded  vanity  from  the 
way  in  which  I  was  met  by  argument  in  a  recent  comrrwt- 
tee,  all  of  which  causes  can  only  be  counteracted  by  a  trans- 
ferrence  of  thought  and  affection  to  the  objects  of  that  bound- 
less and  elevated  panorama  which  faith  places  before  and 
around  the  soul.  Then  would  there  be  trust  in  God — a 
quiet  assurance  that  He  would  bring  good  out  of  evil — a 
busy  engagement  of  the  heart  with  His  service — peace  of 


^T.  59.  PRIVATE  JOURNAL.  133 

conscience  in  the  fellowship  of  Christ — the  absorption  of  self 
and  of  all  selfishness  in  the  glory  of  our  Father  in  heaven 
and  the  good  of  men. 

"  Sunday,  August  Ath. — This  my  marriage-day,  which 
event  took  place  twenty-seven  years  ago.  What  a  life  of 
ungodliness  and  transgression,  and  carelessness  and  neglect, 
both  of  personal  and  family  religion,  have  I  led  I  O  how 
little  have  I  acted  on  the  feeling  of  my  responsibility  for  the 
souls  of  my  children  I  O  my  God,  let  me  set  up  now  the 
new  principle  in  my  heart  and  the  new  order  in  my  family. 
But  let  me  begin  at  the  beginning.  Let  me  accept  of  Christ. 
Give  me,  O  Lord,  full  assurance  of  heart  in  the  blood  of  the 
everlasting  covenant.  In  this  blood  would  I  wash  out  my 
sins  ;  and,  O  my  God,  give  me  henceforth  the  clean  heart 
and  the  right  spirit,  the  love  of  Thyself  shed  abroad  in  my 
heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  I  would  now  go  forth  with  my 
bands  loosed,  and  pray  that  my  future  life  may  be  a  perpet- 
ual thank-offering  to  him  who  died  for  me  and  who  rose 
again.  Hear  these,  my  aspirations,  O  God,  and  fulfill  them 
speedily. 

"  August  5th. — Felt  more  than  ever  the  anteriority  of 
confidence  in  Christ  to  the  keeping  of  His  commandments — 
the  priority  of  simple  trust  in  the  act  of  closing  with  him,  of 
faith  in  my  acceptance  with  God  as  a  preliminary  to  cheer- 
ful and  fruitful  obedience.  Let  me  cherish  this  all  the  day 
long ;  and  let  me  watch  the  effect  of  it,  now  praying  in  the 
name  of  Christ  that  it  may  succeed.  I  would  pray  unto 
watching,  and  watch  unto  prayer." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  CASE  OF  LETHENDY— THE  DEAN'S  ADVICE— THE 
PRESBYTERY'S  PROCEDURE— THE  APPEARANCE  BE- 
FORE THE  COURT  OF  SESSION— THE  REBUKE— THE 
CHARGE  OF  REBELLION  BROUGHT  AGAINST  THE 
CHURCH— HER  ANSWER  TO  THAT  CHARGE— THE 
CONSTITUTIONAL  QUESTION  INVOLVED  IN  THE  COL- 
LISION— APPEAL  TO  THE  LEGISLATURE— COURSE 
TAKEN  BY  THE  MODERATES— PAMPHLET  BY  THE 
DEAN  OF  FACULTY. 

In  a  letter  given  in  the  preceding  chapter  allusion  is  made 
to  an  appearance  of  Dr.  Gordon  before  the  Lords  in  Edin- 
burgh. The  occasion  of  that  appearance  was  one  which 
threw  a  still  fuller  light  upon  the  course  which,  fortified  by 
the  decision  of  the  two  Chancellors,  the  Civil  Court  was 
prepared  to  prosecute.  In  1835,  the  Crown,  as  patron  of 
the  parish,  nominated  an  assistant  and  successor  to  the  aged 
and  infirm  minister  of  Lethendy.  Mr.  Clark,  the  nominee 
of  the  Crown,  was  vetoed  by  the  people,  and  on  that  ground 
rejected  by  the  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld.^  An  appeal  having 
been  made  to  the  General  Assembly  of  1836,  and  that  Court 
having  confirmed  the  sentence  of  the  Presbytery,  Mj.  Clark 
appeared  to  have  acquiesced  in  the  decision.  In  November, 
1837,  however,  under  the  same  prompting  which  instigated 
the  rejected  presentee  of  Auchterarder,  he  raised  an  action 
against  the  Presbytery  in  the  court  of  Session — the  patron, 
however,  being  no  party  in  this  case.  Not  long  afterward 
the  aged  incumbent  died.  Proceeding  upon  the  validity  of 
the  Veto,  and  lending  thus  the  whole  weight  of  its  sanction 
to  the  procedure  of  the  Church,  the  Crown,  regarding  the 

*  After  the  Disruption  Mr.  Clark  was  deprived  of  his  license,  hav- 
ing been  found  guilty  of  drunkenness. 


^T.  59.  CASE  OF  LETHENDY.  135 

parish  as  vacant,  issued  a  new  presentation.  When  the 
Presbytery  were  on  the  eve  of  ordaining  the  presentee,  Mr. 
Kessen,  an  interdict  from  the  Court  of  Session  was  served  up- 
on them,  prohibiting  the  ordination.  Sisting  procedure,  they 
reported  the  matter  to  the  General  Assembly,  and  craved 
advice.  The  case  came  before  the  Commission  of  Assembly 
in  May,  1838,  by  whom,  with  only  two  dissentient  voices, 
the  following  deliverance  was  pronounced  :  "  Find  that  ad- 
mission to  the  pastoral  office  is  entirely  an  ecclesiastical  act, 
subject  to  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts, 
and  ordain  the  Presbytery  to  proceed  without  delay  to  the 
induction  of  Mr.  Kessen,  upon  the  call  in  his  favor,  accord- 
ing to  the  rules  of  the  Church."  The  last  clause  of  this 
deliverance  was  framed  with  the  special  purpose  of  indicat- 
ing that  the  Church  declined  altogether  meddling  with  the 
civil  question  of  the  comparative  validity  of  the  two  com- 
peting presentations,  a  question  which  it  belonged  to  the 
Civil  Court  to  decide.  The  interdict  which  had  previously 
been  obtained  prohibited  the  Presbytery  from  proceeding  upon 
the  presentation  to  Mr.  Kessen.  As  that  interdict  might  be 
found  too  narrow  to  cover  the  sentence  of  the  Commission, 
which  had  directed  the  Presbytery  to  proceed  alone  upon  the 
call,  a  new  and  ampler  one  was  granted,  prohibiting  the  set- 
tlement, whether  upon  the  ground  of  the  call  or  any  other 
ground  whatever.  On  this  second  interdict  being  served 
upon  them,  the  Presbytery,  which  acted  throughout  with 
mingled  caution  and  firmness,  referred  the  matter  to  the 
Commission  which  met  in  August.  The  motion  that  the 
Presbytery  should  be  directed  to  proceed  immediately,  not- 
withstanding the  interdict,  was  seconded  by  the  Rev.  Ham- 
ilton Buchanan  of  Strathblane,  a  minister  strongly  attached 
to  the  Moderate  party  in  the  Church,  The  Rev.  Dr.  Brun- 
ton  of  Edinburgh,  a  clergyman  of  similar  sentiments,  "  re- 
gretted that  the  necessity  of  deciding  this  case  had  been 
thrust  upon  them,  but  still  he  felt  that  the  necessity  existed. 
They  had  instructed  the  Presbytery  to  do  a  purely  spiritual 


136  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

act,  to  ordain  Mr.  Kessen  as  minister  of  the  parish,  and  for 
this  they  were  interdicted.  It  might  happen  that  the  tem- 
poralities of  the  parish  would  not  go  to  the  minister  in  this 
case,  but  he  thought  that  was  exceedingly  unlikely.  He  for 
one  would  never  consent  to  delay,  nor  would  he  consent  to 
go  into  a  civil  court  to  plead  this  cause.  He  knew  his  own 
province,  and  in  that  province  he  would  stand  or  fall."  The 
motion  to  proceed  was  carried"  by  a  majority  of  fifty- two  to 
six  ;  and  in  that  small  minority  only  one  solitary  clergyman 
was  found,  so  general  was  the  conviction  that  the  Court  of 
Session  had  overstepped  its  boundaries  and  made  unlawful 
inroad  on  the  Church.  When,  on  the  day  named  by  the 
Commission,  the  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld  assembled,  the  agent 
of  Mr.  Clark  sought  and  obtained  leave  to  read  an  opinion 
from  an  eminent  lawyer  in  Edinburgh.  It  came  from  the 
Dean  of  Faculty,  the  leading  counsel  and  chief  adviser  in  all 
the  legal  measures  taken  against  the  Church.  It  was  suffi- 
ciently  startling,  and  had  the  ministers  who  sat  to  listen  to 
it  been  men  of  infirm  principle  or  yielding  purpose,  it  might 
well  have  shaken  their  determination,  for  it  hung  over  them 
the  weightiest  terrors  of  the  law.  "  The  members  of  the 
Presbytery,"  said  the  Dean,  "  will  most  infallibly  be  com- 
mitted to  prison,  and  most  justly."  It  had  been  said,  that 
in  acting  as  he  had  done  Mr.  Clark  had  been  guilty  of  con- 
tempt of  the  Church,  and  some  had  even  spoken  of  depriving 
him  of  his  license,  so  as  to  take  from  him  the  ground  that 
gave  him  his  legal  standing.  The  Dean  at  once  placed  the 
rights  of  Mr.  Clark  upon  what  seemed  to  him  a  broader  and 
surer  basis.  "  The  deliverance  of  the  Assembly  attempts  il- 
legally to  trample  on  Mr.  Clark's  rights  as  a  British  subject  ; 
for  any  man  in  this  country  who  adheres  to  its  doctrines  is 
entitled  to  he  a  onember  of  the  Established  Church.^    The 

=*  "  According  to  the  Dean's  ideal  of  the  relationship  between  the 
Church  and  the  State,  the  Church  would  not  have  the  command  of  its 
own  discipline.  On  this  question,  too,  he  would  subordinate  the  ec- 
clesiastical to  the  civil  power.    He  tells  us  of  the  right  of  Church  mem- 


^.T.  59.     APPEARANCE  BEFORE  COURT  OF  SESSION.         137 

rights  of  Mr.  Clark  as  a  probationer,  in  this  respect,  are  as 
sacred  as  those  of  a  layman.  He  was  legally  entitled  to  his 
license,  and  he  holds  it  as  a  British  subject."  Perhaps  it 
was  their  clear  conception  of  the  length  to  which  such  a 
doctrine  would  go  in  exposing  the  whole  discipline,  as  well 
as  the  whole  government,  of  the  Church  to  secular  dictation 
and  control,  which  helped  to  fortify  this  Presbytery  against 
all  the  arguments  and  threats  by  which  they  were  assailed. 
Unmoved  by  these,  they  ordained  Mr.  Kessen  to  be  minister 
of  Lethendy.  They  had  now  to  face  a  more  trying  ordeal. 
The  act  of  ordination  had  no  sooner  been  consummated  than 
a  complaint  was  lodged  against  them  for  a  breach  of  inter- 
dict, and  they  were  summoned  to  appear  at  the  bar  of  the 
Court  in  Edinburgh,  on  the  14th  June,  1839.  In  itself  it 
was  a  formidable  enough  matter  to  be  dragged  from  their 
quiet  country  charges  and  to  be  pilloried  for  public  observa- 
tion in  an  uncongenial  court,  and  before  an  unsympathizing 
bar.  But  it  was  as  criminals  guilty  of  a  contempt  of  con- 
stituted authorities — it  was  for  punishment    as  such    that 

bership,  which  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  right  of  admission  to  tlie 
sacraments,  and  which  right  he  gives  us  to  understand  may  be  prose- 
cuted by  any  of  the  citizens  at  a  court  of  law  ;  so  that,  if  armed  with 
this  authority,  he  could  force  his  way  to  the  communion-table,  even 
though,  by  the  judgment  of  the  Church,  and  all  its  consistories,  he  should 
thereby  profane  the  ordinance,  and  bring  damage  and  condemnation 
upon  his  own  soul.  Ere  he  can  forfeit  the  privilege  there  must  be  a 
corpus  delicti — some  specific  delinquency,  palpable  enough  for  cogni- 
zance and  condemnation  by  a  bench  of  secular  judges,  at  whose  man- 
date the  prostrate  Church  must  receive  into  her  inmost  sanctuary  men, 
who,  in  her  own  judgment,  though  living  without  any  gr-oss  or  definable 
immorality,  are  yet  living  without  God  in  the  world.  If  this  be  State 
religion  the  sooner  it  is  banished  from  our  land  the  better  for  the  good 
of  the  Church  and  for  the  moral  wellbeing.  as  well  as  the  peace  of  the 
commonwealth.  If  such  be  indeed  the  necessary  consequences  of  an 
ecclesiastical  establishment,  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  sacred,  let  our 
establishments  perish  ;  but  let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  the  authors  of 
this  their  fearful  degradation,  that  they,  and  they  alone,  are  responsible 
for  their  overthrow." — Remarks,  SfC.  occasioned  by  the  Publication  of  a 
Letter  from  the  Dean  of  Faculty.    By  Thomas  Chalmers,  D.D.    P.  27 


138  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

they  were  to  appear.  The  Dean  had  pledged  his  word 
that  they  would  be  imprisoned,  and  there  were  not  wanting 
other  tokens  that  his  prophecy  might  be  verified.  A  very 
deep  sympathy  on  their  behalf  was  excited,  and  one  or  two 
of  the  leading  clergymen  of  Edinburgh  resolved  to  accom- 
pany them  to  the  bar.  The  day  arrived.  When  the  twelve 
Judges  took  their  places  on  the  Bench  they  had  a  court- 
room before  them  crowded  densely  to  the  door.  The  Pres- 
bytery was  summoned  to  appear.  They  entered,  accom- 
panied by  a  few  friends.  The  crowd  through  which  they 
passed  had  already  closed,  when  once  more  it  opened,  and 
with  meek  but  dignified  demeanor.  Dr.  Gordon  stepped  for- 
ward to  place  himself  at  their  side.  There  M^as  something 
singularly  appropriate  in  the  act.  No  minister  of  equal  tal- 
ent had  been  more  unobtrusive,  or  shown  a  stronger  aversion 
to  popular  agitation,  or  any  thing  like  public  display.  But 
now  that  clergymen  who  had  mingled  in  the  strife  of  parties 
as  little  as  himself  were  called  to  suffer  for  conscience'  sake, 
he  felt  compelled,  in  the  most  public  manner  to  countenance 
and  support  them. 

"  Gentlemen,*'  said  the  Lord  President,  after  their  names 
had  been  read  over,  and  the  citation  read,  "  I  have  to  ask  you, 
one  and  all,  whether,  by  yourselves  or  counsel,  you  have  any 
thing  to  say,  and  what  you  have  to  say,  in  explanation  or 
vindication  of  your  conduct  ?" 

"  As  my  name,"  said  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stirling  of  Cargill, 
<'is  the  first  on  the  list,  and  as  I  happen  to  be  the  senior 
minister  present,  I  have  been  intrusted  by  my  brethren  with 
the  statement  which  they  wish  to  make  to  the  Court."  The 
following  statement  was  then  read  by  him  : — "  My  Lords — 
We  appear  in  obedience  to  the  citation  of  your  Lordships, 
inasmuch  as  we  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  all  subjects  to  ren- 
der their  personal  compearance  when  cited  by  the  Civil 
Courts  ;  and  being  deeply  impressed  with  the  obligation  of 
giving  all  honor  and  reverence  to  the  judges  of  the  land,  we 
disclaim  any  intention  of  disrespect  to  the  Court  in  what  we 


JET.  59.  THE  CHARGE  OF  REBELLION.  139 

have  done.  But  in  ordaining  to  the  office  of  the  holy  min- 
istry, and  in  admitting  to  the  pastoral  charge,  to  which,  in 
our  proceedings  complained  of,  we  strictly  limited  ourselves, 
we  acted  in  obedience  to  the  superior  Church  judicatories  to 
which,  in  matters  spiritual,  we  are  subordinate,  and  to  which, 
at  ordination,  we  vowed  obedience."  Mr.  Kessen  having 
read  a  similar  statement,  the  Judges  retired  for  consultation, 
and  the  Court  adjourned.  By  a  narrow  majority  the  clergy- 
men escaped  imprisonment,  and  were  subjected  only  to  the 
solemn  censure  of  the  Court.  In  pronouncing  the  censure, 
the  Lord  President  took  occasion  to  say — "  I  am  directed  by 
the  Court  to  signify  that  it  was  not  without  considerable  dif- 
ficulty their  Lordships  brought  themselves  to  adopt  this  le- 
nient measure  ;  but  they  desired  me  to  state,  that  if  you  or 
any  other  Presbytery  of  the  Church  were  ever  brought  be- 
fore them  again  under  similar  circumstances,  you  and  they 
will  be  dealt  with  in  a  very  different  manner.  The  ordi- 
nary punishment  for  disobedience  to  the  law  by  a  breach  of 
interdict  is  imprisonment  ;  and  I  am  directed  to  say,  that  if 
a  case  like  the  present  should  occur  again,  that  punishment 
will  be  resorted  to." ' 

Why  did  the  Court  of  Session  not  proceed  one  step  further, 
and  annul  the  ordination  ?  and  why  did  not  the  Moderate 
party  in  the  Church  openly  condemn  the  breach  of  interdict, 
and  afterward  declare  that  they  held  the  ordination  void  ? 
Because  neither  the  one  party  nor  the  other  was  prepared 
for  a  step  which  yet,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  was  ere  long 
deliberately  taken  by  both. 

The  charge  with  which  the  country  now  was  ringing  was 
that  the  Church  was  in  open  rebellion  against  the  law  of  the 
land.  It  might  have  been  so  ;  yet  condemned  before  the  bar 
of  man,  she  might  have  stood  acquitted  before  the  bar  of 
God.  There  have  been  human  laws,  the  keeping  of  which 
was  tantamount  to  a  breaking  of  the  divine.  But  the  charge, 
as  made  against  the  Church  of  Scotland  at  this  time,  involved 
the  assumption  that  the  authority  which  she  resisted  was  a 


140  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

legal  one.  She  denied  that  the  Constitution  had  clothed  the 
Court  of  Session  with  any  such  power  as  it  had  attempted 
to  put  forth.  The  State,  by  Act  of  Parhament,  had  created 
three  secular  Courts  in  Scotland,  each  supreme  in  its  own 
sphere,  and  none  of  them  permitted  to  exercise  any  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  other.  The  administration  of  justice  was  com- 
mitted to  the  Court  of  Session  in  all  civil,  to  the  Court  of 
Justiciary  in  all  criminal,  to  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  in  all 
fiscal  causes.  The  decisions  of  these  Courts  might  not  only 
be  different,  but  they  might  be,  and  sometimes  have  been, 
directly  opposite  to  each  other  ;  and  when  such  a  collision 
between  Courts  of  co-ordinate  jurisdiction  occurs,  the  Con- 
stitution knows  no  remedy :  it  holds  the  decision  of  each  sep- 
arate Court  to  be  right,  and  it  allows  it  to  carry  out  that 
decision  by  its  own  proper  and  peculiar  methods.  It  has  com- 
mitted to  none  of  these  Courts  a  sovereign  authority  over  all 
the  others,  nor  does  it  permit  the  exercise  of  any  such  control. 
And  the  same  State  which  created  these  Courts  supreme  in 
all  secular,  had  recognized  and  ratified  the  authority  of  the 
Church  as  supreme  in  all  ecclesiastical  causes.  From  the  lat- 
ter to  the  former  there  lay  no  appeal,  and  by  the  former  over 
the  latter  no  supreme  jurisdiction  could  constitutionally  be 
exercised.  Interpreting  the  Law  of  Patronage  for  her  own 
especial  purpose,  the  Church  had  declined  ordaining  either 
Mr.  Young,  or  Mr.  Clark.  Interpreting  the  same  law  for  its 
peculiar  purpose,  the  Court  of  Session  had  decided  that  in 
doing  so  the  Church  had  violated  the  statute.  Let  its  proper 
civil  effect  follow  the  one  decision,  and  its  proper  ecclesias- 
tical effect  the  other  ;  but  let  not  this  collision  be  otherwise 
characterized  than  would  a  like  collision  between  any  two 
of  the  Courts  already  named,  nor  let  an  attempt  be  made  to 
end  it  which  the  Constitution  in  every  parallel  case  repudi- 
ated. If  in  thinking  and  acting  as  she  did  the  Church  mis- 
understood her  position,  it  was  for  another  party,  but  not  for 
the  Court  of  Session,  to  correct  the  error.  The  State,  in 
raising  her  to  the  condition  of  an  Establishment,  had  attached 


^T.  59.  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  QUESTION.  141 

certain  conditions  to  her  enjoyment  of  the  civil  immunities 
of  that  position.  These  conditions  had  been  embodied  in  cer- 
tain statutes,  the  interpretation  and  execution  of  which,  as 
to  all  civil  effects,  was  intrusted  to  the  Court  of  Session, 
and  as  to  all  spiritual  effects,  to  the  Church.  If  they  under- 
stood the  conditions  differently,  neither  was  bound  to  accept 
the  interpretation  of  the  other.  The  Church  was  at  liberty 
to  act  upon  her  own  understanding  of  the  terms  on  which 
she  held  her  endowments;  but  if  that  understanding  happened 
to  be  so  different  from  the  one  entertained  by  the  Civil  Courts 
that  their  decisions  came  into  collision,  it  was  for  the  State 
to  step  in,  and  by  new  legislation  to  adjust  the  difference. 
The  right  of  the  State  to  define,  or  alter,  or  re-raodel,  and 
that  for  the  guidance  of  both  parties,  was  admitted  ;  but 
the  right  of  the  Civil  Courts  to  do  so  for  the  guidance  of 
both  parties  was  denied.  It  was  evident,  at  least,  that  until 
the  competent  authority  had  declared  that  she  had  mistaken 
her  position  and  privileges,  the  Church  could  not  fairly  be 
charged  with  the  flagrant  crime  of  rebellion. 

It  was  to  that  alone  competent  authority  that  she  had  now 
carried  her  appeal,  and  she  might  perhaps  have  been  suffered 
to  prosecute  that  appeal  without  any  further  obstructions  hav- 
ing been  thrown  in  her  way.  That  an  interval  clear  from 
all  new  internal  difficulties  might  be  secured,  though  she  had 
not  repealed,  she  had  suspended  for  a  year  the  operation  of 
the  Veto  Law.  It  would  have  been  a  generous  and  a  dignified 
course  in  the  opponents  of  the  Church,  if,  during  that  year, 
at  least,  they  had  suspended  all  hostile  operations.  She  had 
approached  the  Legislature  ;  she  was  about  to  deal  with  the 
British  Parliament — a  body  but  little  acquainted  with  her 
history  or  peculiar  constitution.  The  task  was  sufficiently 
delicate  and  difficult  in  itself ;  her  own  children  might  have 
suffered  her  to  make  the  attempt  without  throwing  new  em- 
barrassments in  her  way.  But  neither  the  Moderate  party 
nor  their  legal  and  political  advisers  had  magnanimity  enough 
to  refuse  to  take  advantage  of  the  difficulties  in  which  the 


142  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 


Church  was  involved.  They  acted,  we  believe,  upon  a  sin- 
cere conviction  that  they  were  doing  what  was  best  for  their 
Church  and  country ;  but  the  course  taken  by  them  at  this 
time  was  neither  an  enlightened  nor  a  very  generous  one, 
and  had  the  actual  result  been  known  to  them,  we  doubt 
whether  they  would  have  helped  so  vigorously  to  realize  it. 

The  favorable  Report  given  in  by  Dr.  Chalmers  to  the 
Commission  in  August  got  a  most  unfavorable  reception  from 
one  quarter  of  the  House.  Contrary  to  his  recent  practice, 
which  had  been  to  absent  himself  from  the  meetings  of  Com- 
mission, Dr.  Cook  was  present  on  this  occasion ;  and  no  sooner 
had  Dr.  Chalmers  sat  down  than  he  rose  to  declare  that  the 
announcement  just  made,  that  the  Government  of  the  country 
intended  to  exercise  their  patronage  in  conformity  with  the 
Veto  Law,  appeared  to  him  to  be  nothing  short  of  a  violation 
of  the  law  on  the  part  of  the  Crown.  In  the  leading  case 
which  came  before  the  Court  he  put  forth  all  his  strength 
of  argument  to  prove  that  the  Veto  Law  was  now  defunct, 

the  decision  of  the  Civil  Courts  had  blotted  it  out  of  the 

statute-book  of  the  Church.  The  casting  of  such  an  imputa- 
tion on  the  Crown,  and  the  continuance  of  a  vigorous  oppo- 
sition in  the  Church  Courts,  though  calculated  to  increase  the 
existing  embarrassments,  may  have  appeared  to  the  Moderate 
party  necessary  for  the  vindication  at  once  of  their  principles 
and  their  consistency.  We  can  offer  no  such  excuse  for  the 
next  step  taken  by  the  Dean  of  Faculty.  If  not,  as  gener- 
ally believed,  the  prompter,  he  had  been  the  vigorous  promoter 
of  all  the  litigation  by  which  the  Church  had  been  harassed. 
The  struggle  had  now  been  carried  to  a  different  arena,  where 
his  interference  was  less  called  for,  and,  perhaps,  not  so  ap- 
propriate. He  had  power,  however,  even  in  that  quarter  to 
hinder  the  Church's  getting  what  she  asked  ;  and  with  the 
laborious  diligence  which  distinguished  all  his  doings,  he  ex- 
erted that  power  in  the  production  of  an  enormous  pamphlet, 
given  to  the  public  soon  after  the  close  of  the  Commission. 
"  There  is  one  peculiarity,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  in  this  pam- 


,£T.  59.  THE  DEAN'S  PAMPHLET.  143 

phlet  of  the  Dean's,  which  makes  it  far  more  difficult  to  deal 
with  than  any  to  which  my  attention  has  been  called  or 
challenged  on  the  lists  of  controversy.  And  this  peculiarity 
lies,  not  so  much  in  the  multifariousness  of  its  topics,  as  in 
the  utter  mal-arrangement  of  them.  Truly  it  is  not  with  lit- 
erary or  with  intellectual  as  it  is  with  military  tactics,  when 
the  very  disorder  of  a  hostile  force  makes  it  all  the  easier  prey 
to  the  victors  who  are  bearing  down  upon  it.  It  is  different 
in  the  warfare  of  argument,  where  the  ill-marshaled  para- 
graphs of  some  lengthened  and  laborious  ratiocination,  instead 
of  offering  a  facility  to  the  assailant,  leave  the  author  well- 
nigh  unassailable ;  almost  safe  and  beyond  the  reach  of  attack, 
because  intrenched  as  it  were  in  the  mazes  of  his  own  confu- 
sion. There  is  one  line  of  English  poetry,  which  I  happen  to 
recollect,  the  first  half  of  which,  taken  alone,  is  descriptive  of 
this  pamphlet,  'A  mighty  maze,'  but  when  taken  along  with 
the  second  half,  ceases  altogether  to  be  descriptive  of  it,  'A 
mighty  maze,  but  not  without  a  plan.'  The  study  of  the 
universe  is  not  so  formidable  as  is  the  study  of  this  enormous 
miscellany — this  mare  magnum,,  and  interminable  medley  of 
contents,  vnole&indigesta — ^having,  if  not  the  vastness,  at  least 
all  the  confusion  and  disorder  of  a  chaos,  <  A  mighty  maze, 
but  quite  without  a  plan." 

Confused  as  to  its  topics,  this  pamphlet  exhibits  a  singular 
unity  of  design ;  the  object,  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of, 
being  to  exhibit  the  sayings  and  doings  of  the  dominant  party 
in  the  Church  in  such  a  light  as  to  create  the  greatest  pos- 
sible amount  of  opposition  and  antipathy.  The  long,  dark 
winding  passages,  which  few  might  have  patience  to  tread 
throughout,  are  yet  so  constructed,  that  enter  or  make  his 
exit  where  he  may,  the  same  hideous  phantom  is  obtruded 
on  the  reader's  eye,  and  made  to  haunt  his  fancy.  The 
errors  as  to  fact,  the  inconsistencies  of  argument,  are  mani- 
fold ;  but  whether  it  be  popular  fickleness  or  clerical  ambition 
that  is  denounced — whether  the  Veto  Law  is  condemned  as 
assumption  by  the  Church  of  an  unlawful  power,  or  as  a 


144  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  18:^9. 

transferrence  by  the  Church  to  the  people,  of  a  power  which  she 
never -should  have  parted  with — whether  the  recent  movement 
is  represented  as  an  organized  design  to  abolish  Patronage, 
and  put  the  election  of  their  ministers  wholly  into  the  hands 
of  the  people,  or  as  a  cloaked  attempt  to  establish  a  spiritual 
despotism,  dangerous  alike  to  the  civil  and  religious  liberties 
of  Scotland,  the  one  unvarying  impression  attempted  to  be 
stamped  upon  the  reader's  mind  is,  that  a  spirit  of  priestly 
fanaticism,  reckless  of  change,  and  panting  for  domination, 
had  got  hold  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  was  threatening 
a  thousand  nameless  evils  to  the  land.  What  Dr.  Chalmers 
felt  as  the  unkindest  act  of  all,  was  the  deliberate  and  sus- 
tained endeavor  made  by  the  Dean  to  arouse  against  that 
Church  the  hostility  of  Englishmen.  By  members  of  the 
English  Church  and  Senate  the  question  would  come  finally 
to  be  settled  ;  and  to  awaken  their  prejudice  was  an  effectual 
mode  of  preventing  a  settlement  favorable  to  the  Scottish 
Church.  Every  strong  or  bitter  sentence,  therefore,  that  h^d 
recently  been  uttered  against  the  English  Episcopate  by  any 
of  the  evangelical  leaders,  was  quoted  and  commented  upon, 
while  the  alarm  was  loudly  sounded  that  if  they  got  what 
they  demanded,  the  patronage  and  peculiar  policy  of  the 
English  Establishment  would  be  no  longer  safe. 

Having  done  what  he  could  to  prevent  such  a  parliament- 
ary adjustment  as  would  be  satisfactory  to  the  Church,  "  The 
Dean,"  says  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  proposes  for  us  an  alternative, 
either  to  give  in  to  him,  or  go  out  of  the  Church  ;  the  first 
time,  perhaps,  that  a  majority,  and  a  large  one  too,  had  the 
doors  opened,  and  the  way  out  shown  to  them  by  the  cham- 
pion and  representative  of  that  minority  whom  they  them- 
selves had  vanquished.  Our  reply  to  this  civil  hint  is,  that 
upon  this  subject  we  stand  alike  opposed  to  those  on  our  own 
side  who  have  threatened  a  secession,  and  unmoved  by  the 
kind  suggestion  of  the  Dean  of  Faculty.  There  may  a  con- 
juncture arise,  when  the  sin  of  not  coming  out  from  among 
them  might  outweigh  the  sin  of  schism  ;  but  till  that  happens, 


^T.  59.  THE  DEAN'S  ALTERNATIVE.  145 

let  the  virtuous  remonstrance,  and  the  reclaiming  testimony  of 
our  brethren,  be  heard  within  the  walls  and  precincts  of  our 
Establishments,  rather  than  beyond  them,  so  long  as  con- 
science can  allow — let  them  not  quit  their  places  at  the  call 
of  their  taunting  adversaries,  nor  leave  the  beloved  Church 
of  our  fathers  a  useless  residuum,  and  a  mere  caput  mortumn 
in  their  hands.  A  forcible  ejectment  from  our  places  would 
put  an  end  to  all  the  difficulties  of  conscience  ;  and  the  sin 
of  schism  would  then  be  no  longer  ours.  But,  meanwhile, 
we  refuse  to  be  bowed  down  stairs,  or  walked  off  from  the 
Church  of  our  fathers  by  the  Dean  of  Faculty,  We  shall 
as  little  understand  his  hints  as  he  seems  to  understand  our 
arguments  ;  or,  to  avoid  putting  it  in  this  form,  he  will  at 
least  forgive  us  if  we  shut  our  ears  against  his  propositions, 
as  long  as  he  is  going  to  shut  his  eyes  against  our  pam- 
phlets."* 

As  Dr.  Chalmers  commenced  writing  his  reply  before  he 
had  finished  reading  the  Dean's  pamphlet,  it  was  not  till  he 
had  advanced  a  considerable  way  in  its  composition  that  he 
fell  in  with  those  passages  in  which  an  open  attack  was 
made  upon  the  integrity  of  that  Report,  which,  as  the  head 
of  the  deputation  to  London,  he  had  recently  given  in  to  the 
Commission.  "  I  can  not  say,"  says  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  .deal- 
ing with  this  unworthy  accusation,  "  how  much  I  have  been 
shocked  and  mortified  by  this  painful  discovery.  The  cause 
is  still  the  same,  but  the  combatant  now  stands  in  a  new 
character  before  me. 

"  This  casts  another  light  on  certain  anterior  passages  of 
the  pamphlet,  in  which  light  if  I  had  seen  them  at  the  time, 
I  should  have  modified,  or  rather  repressed  altogether,  cer- 
tain anterior  passages  of  my  own.  What  I  innocently  con- 
ceived, and  indeed  called  an  historical  imagination,  or  a 
hypothetical  basis  on  which  to  rear  his  adverse  reasonings,  I 
can  now  well  understand  to  be  a  real  and  settled  conviction 

*  The  Dean  had  announced  that  he  would  read  nothing  that  was 
written  against  him. 
■t-OL    IV  <— G- 


146  MEMOIRS  OF   DR.  CHALMERS.  1839. 

in  the  breast  of  one  who  virtually  tells  the  world,  of  the  As- 
sembly deputation  to  London,  that,  in  framing  their  Report 
to  the  Commission,  he  does  not  believe  that  they  have  acted 
in  good  faith."   *   *   * 

The  whole  of  this  unhappy  passage  is  wound  up  by  the 
following  sentence  :  "7  suspect  that  Lord  Melbourne  has 
been  very  ill  used  in  the  whole  of  this  affair'' 

"  I  am  not  conversant  in  those  methods  or  laws  which 
regulate  the  intercourse  of  statesmen  ;  nor  have  I  often  in  the 
course  of  my  life  had  access  to  the  elevated  platform  on  which 
they  move.  I  know  not,  therefore,  what  it  portends  to  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  when  I  behold  the  Premier  of  England 
approached  from  the  opposite  quarter  of  the  political  horizon, 
in  the  language  first  of  adulation,  and  then  of  condolence,  be- 
cause the  untainted  chivalry  of  their  higher  region  has  been 
desecrated  and  broken  in  upon,  by  an  inroad  of  Jesuitism  and 
low  cunning  from  beneath.  I  can  not  divine  either  the  char- 
acter or  the  effects  of  this  strange  approximation  and  act  of 
obeisance  on  the  part  of  the  inflexible  Tory,  to  the  head  of  our 
present  Liberal  administration.  Meanwhile,  as  a  spectacle 
it  is  very  curious  to  behold ;  and  the  last  and  most  exquisite 
touch  is  given  to  it  by  the  hand  of  the  Dean  of  Faculty, 
when  he  finishes  off  by  the  expression  of  his  deepest  sympa- 
thy and  concern  for  the  sorely  injured  Lord  Melbourne. 

"  Let  me  hope  for  his  own  sake,  that  the  Dean  of  Faculty 
will  yet  make  avowal  of  his  regret  for  these  unguarded  and 
most  unseemly  paragraphs."  * 

*  Remarks,  ^c,  occasioned  by  the  Publication  of  a  Letter  from  the 
Dean  of  Faculty.  By  Thomas  Chalmers,  D.D.,  ^c.  Glasgow,  1839. 
Pp.  5,  10,  11,  78,  80,  81,  93. 


CHAPTEE  IX. 

THE  CASE  OF  MARNOCH— THE  REFRACTORY  PRESBY- 
TERY  OF  STRATHBOGIE— THEIR  RESOLUTION  TO  DIS- 
OBEY  THE  ORDERS  OF  THE  COMMISSION— THE  SUS- 
PENSION OF  THE  SEVEN  MINISTERS— THE  PREACHING 
OF  THE  GOSPEL  PROHIBITED  IN  THE  DISTRICT  OF 
STRATHBOGIE— THE  BROKEN  INTERDICTS. 

In  June,  1837,  Mr.  Edwards  was  presented  to  the  church 
and  parish  of  Marnoch.  Having  acted  previously,  for  a 
period  of  three  years,  as  assistant  to  the  former  incumbent, 
he  was  well  known  to  the  parishioners,  and  so  unacceptable 
were  his  ministrations,  that  at  their  urgent  and  almost 
unanimous  desire,  their  aged  pastor  had  dispensed  with  his 
services.  In  a  parish  whose  population  was  about  2800 
souls,  his  call  was  signed  by  one  solitary  communicant,  the 
keeper  of  the  inn  at  which  the  Presbytery  were  wont  to  dine. 
Out  of  300  heads  of  families  whose  names  were  on  the 
Communion-roll,  261  tendered  their  dissent.  Acting  under 
special  direction  of  the  General  Assembly  1838,  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Strathbogie  rejected  Mr.  Edwards  ;  and  on  this 
rejection  being  intimated  to  the  patrons,  the  Trustees  of  the 
Earl  of  Fife  presented  another  individual  to  the  charge. 
Upon  the  issuing  of  this  second  presentation,  Mr.  Edwards 
applied  for  and  obtained  an  interdict  from  the  Court  of 
Session,  prohibiting  the  Presbytery  from  proceeding  with  the 
settlement.  After  due  consideration  of  this  document,  and 
with  the  declared  principles  and  recent  practice  of  the 
Church  before  them,  the  Presbytery  resolved  "  That  the 
Court  of  Session  having  authority  in  matters  relating  to  the 
induction  of  ministers,  and  having  interdicted  all  proceedings 
on  the  part  of  the  Presbytery  in  this  case,  and  it  being  the 


148  MCMOlPtS  OF  DR.  CHAOIERS.  1840. 

duty  of  the  Presbytery  to  submit  to  their  authority  regularly 
interponed,  the  Presbytery  do  delay  all  procedure  until  the 
matters  in  dispute  be  legally  determined."  This  judgment 
was  brought  under  review  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
1839.  The  circumstances  being  precisely  similar  to  those 
which  had  occurred  at  Lethendy,  the  Presbytery  might 
have  been  enjoined  to  take  the  same  course  which  had  been 
prescribed  to  the  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld.  Instead  of  this 
they  were  simply  instructed  to  suspend  all  further  proceed- 
ings in  the  matter  till  the  following  General  Assembly. 
Avoiding  all  immediate  and  direct  collision  between  the 
Presbytery  and  Court  of  Session,  this  decision  was  one  which 
even  those  who  disapproved  most  vehemently  of  the  recent 
actings  of  the  Church  could  have  no  difficulty  in  obeying  ; 
and  it  was  framed  so  as  to  lay  the  least  possible  pressure 
upon  the  majority  of  a  Presbytery  well  known  to  be  so 
affected.  While  the  Church  was  dealing  thus  tenderly 
with  her  own  children,  under  the  first  indications  of  a  re- 
fractory and  rebellious  spirit,  Mr.  Edwards  was  pressing  on 
the  action  which  he  had  raised  against  the  Presbytery  in  the 
Court  of  Session;  and  in  June,  1839,  he  obtained  a  judg- 
ment in  his  favor,  by  which  it  was  declared  that,  notwith- 
standing the  veto  put  by  the  people  on  his  appointment,  the 
Presbytery  were  still  bound  to  take  him  upon  trial  with  a 
view  to  ordination.  As  this  judgment  was  purely  a  declar- 
atory one,  unaccompanied  by  any  such  order  as  Lord 
Brougham  had  suggested  as  the  proper  means  of  enforcing 
obedience,  the  Presbytery  with  perfect  safety,  and  without 
violating  their  own  convictions,  might  have  delayed,  at  least 
till  the  compulsitors  of  law  had  been  applied.  Their  new- 
born allgiance,  however,  to  the  Court  of  Session  was  too 
ardent  to  admit  of  delay  ;  and  no  sooner  was  its  sentence 
notified,  than,  with  needless  haste,  and  with  a  violence  and 
irregularity  of  movement  which  found  no  defender,  even 
among  the  leaders  of  the  Moderate  party,  by  a  majority  of 
seven  to  three,  they  resolved  to  bid  open  defiance  to  their  ec- 


MT.  60.  SPEECH  AT  THE  COMMISSION.  149 

clesiastical  superiors,  and  to  proceed  forthwith  to  settle  Mr. 
Edwards  as  minister  at  Marnoch.  It  was  in  these  circum- 
stances that  the  case  came  before  the  Commission  of  Assem- 
bly on  the  11th  December,  1839.  In  vain  were  the  seven 
refractory  clergymen  asked  to  reconsider  their  extraordinary 
resolution  ;  in  vain  were  they  assured  that  if  they  would 
only  sist  procedure,  and  in  the  mean  time  do  nothing,  all 
judgment  upon  their  contumacy  would  be  waived,  and  the 
Commission  would  be  content  simply  to  remit  the  matter  to 
the  General  Assembly  in  May.  They  would  make  no  con- 
cession. They  would  neither  express  any  regret  for  the 
past,  nor  give  any  promise  as  to  the  future.  Its  authority 
thus  openly  defied,  its  laws  and  decisions  thus  daringly 
trampled  on,  what  was  the  Church  to  do  ?  In  the  way  of 
prevention,  rather  than  of  punishment — to  take  from  them 
for  a  season  that  power  which  they  had  openly  declared  it 
to  be  their  purpose  to  employ  in  a  manner  so  flagrantly  un- 
lawful— it  was  resolved  that  they  should  be  suspended  from 
exercising  the  functions  of  the  holy  ministry.  In  a  speech 
of  extraordinary  ability,  Dr.  Candlish  moved  this  resolution. 
It  was  warmly  supported  by  Dr.  Chalmers  : — "  I  did 
expect,"  he  said,  "  that  we  would  have  been  followed  in  our 
forbearance  by  the  other  side  ;  that  there  would  have  been 
a  cessation  of  hostilities.  Every  thing,  however,  is  doing  to 
thwart  us — every  thing  is  doing  to  annoy  us — every  thing 
is  doing  to  prevent  us  from  bringing  these  negotiations  with 
the  Legislature  to  a  happy  issue.  But  our  immediate  busi« 
ness  is  not  with  any  partisanship  out  of  doors,  but  with  the 
part  which  our  own  brethren,  the  ministers  and  elders  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  take  in  this  question.  Let  us  re- 
member that  it  is  not  the  Veto  Law  we  are  now  considering, 
but  a  thing  greatly  more  radical,  and  vital,  and  elementary, 
and  of  far  more  permanent  and  pervading  importance  to  the 
Church,  than  any  single  law  on  its  Statute-book.  The  Veto 
is  a  bagatelle,  and  but  dust  in  the  balance,  when  compared 
with  the  proper  independence  of  our  Church  in  things  eccle- 


150  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

siastical,  and  to  which,  in  the  case  before  us,  there  is  super- 
added another  object  charged  with  essential  principle,  and 
where  neglect  or  irresolution  on  our  part  would  be  followed 
by  consequences  the  most  ruinous — the  proper  subordination 
of  our  inferior  to  our  superior  courts.  These  are  the  momen- 
tous considerations  which  now  engage  us  ;  on  which  Vetoists 
and  anti-Vetoists  ought  to  feel  a  common  interest,  and  to 
make  a  common  cause.  They  did  so  in  one  of  the  Commis- 
sions of  1838,  when  parties  dropped  their  differences  on  this 
specific  question,  and  took  all  but  a  unanimous  view  of  the 
interdict  by  the  Court  of  Session  in  the  matter  of  Lethendy. 
In  the  name  of  all  principle  and  all  patriotism,  I  would  im- 
plore them  to  do  so  still,  and  to  remember  that  what  they 
are  now  called  upon  to  do,  is  not  to  defend  or  to  rescind  the 
Veto  law,  but  to  protect  our  beloved  Church  from  anarchy 
within,  and  that  tyranny  which  now  menaces  and  lowers 
upon  us  from  without.  Heaven  forbid  that  in  the  heat  and 
frenzy  of  our  divisions  on  another,  and  altogether  distinct 
topic,  we  should  go  headlong  on  this  ;  or  that  in  the  wild 
delirium  of  our  controversies,  the  principles  alike  dear  to  both 
parties  should  at  the  moment  be  forgotten,  and  the  Church 
of  Scotland  should  fall  by  the  hands  of  her  own  children." 

At  the  largest  meeting  of  Commission  ever  known  to  have 
assembled,  and  by  a  majority  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-one 
to  fourteen,  the  motion  for  suspension  was  carried.  By  this 
sentence  the  refractory  majority  were  prohibited  from  dis- 
charging any  duties  of  their  office  ;  and  the  minority,  as 
constituting  now  the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie,  were  direct- 
ed to  take  all  proper  means  for  supplying  their  parishes  with 
ministerial  services.  At  the  same  time,  and  in  the  hope 
that  a  final  and  irreparable  breach  might  still  be  avoided,  a 
committee  was  appointed  to  open  a  friendly  corresjiondence 
with  the  suspended  ministers.  As  a  deputation  from  this 
Committee,  Dr.  Gordon,  Dr.  Makellar,  and  Mr.  Bruce,  pro- 
ceeded to  Aberdeen,  where  they  had  invited  the  Strathbogie 
ministers  to  meet  with  them.      On  arrival,  however,  they 


JE.T.60.  THE  STRATH  BOGIE  INTERDICTS.  151 


were  met  only  by  a  legal  agent,  who  put  into  their  hands  a 
paper  signed  by  the  seven  clergymen,  in  which  they  declined 
the  interview.  Already,  indeed,  had  proof  too  palpable  been 
afforded  that  all  hope  of  reconciliation  was  gone.  On  the 
day  after  that  on  which  the  sentence  of  suspension  was  pass- 
ed, and  while  the  Commission  was  still  sitting,  a  notarial 
protest,  at  the  instance  of  these  ministers,  was  served  upon 
that  Court ;  and  a  few  days  thereafter,  as  if  no  judgment 
against  them  was  in  force,  they  assembled  as  if  in  Presby- 
tery, and  proceeded  to  take  Mr.  Edwards  upon  trial.  The 
protection  sought  for  and  relied  upon  was  that  of  the  Civil 
Court,  to  which  they  presented  an  application,  in  which  they 
called  upon  the  Court  to  suspend  the  sentence  of  the  Com- 
mission— to  prevent  its  intimation  and  execution — to  pro- 
hibit the  minority  from  acting  as  a  Presbytery,  and  to  inter- 
dict all  clergymen  of  the  Church  from  preaching  or  discharg- 
ing any  of  the  functions  of  the  ministry  in  any  of  their  parishes. 
The  demand  was  so  broad  and  startling  that  even  the  Court  of 
Session  for  the  moment  drew  back.  "  In  this  case,"  said  the 
Lord  President,  "  the  Court  are  prepared  to  grant  the  inter- 
dict, but  not  to  the  full  extent  prayed  for.  The  complainers 
prayed  the  Court  to  interdict  and  prohibit  the  parties  com- 
plained of  from  preaching  in  the  respective  parishes  of  the 
complainers.  Now,  the  Court  could  not  prevent  any  man 
preaching  in  these  parishes.  Any  one  might  preach  in  the 
open  air,  for  instance.  The  Court  had  jurisdiction  only  over 
the  parish  churches,  the  church-yard,  the  school-room,  and  the 
bell."  Taking  in  the  meantime  this  limited  view  of  its  juris- 
diction, the  Court  interdicted  the  minority  of  the  Presbytery, 
and  all  others,  from  using,  in  executing  the  sentence  of  the 
Commission,  any  of  the  places  and  buildings  specified  by  the 
Lord  President.  Acknowledging  as  it  so  fully  did,  the  Court's 
right  of  entire  control  over  all  its  temporalities,  the  Church 
yielded  immediate  compliance  with  this  interdict.  The  clergy- 
men appointed  to  intimate  the  judgment  of  the  Commission 
either  preached  in  the  open  air  or  under  such  shelter  as  some 


152  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840, 

neighboring  shed  or  barn  could  furnish.  Then  and  after- 
wards an  opportunity  was  opened  for  the  effeetive  preaching 
of  the  Gospel  over  a  wide  district  of  country.  Some  of  the 
ablest  ministers  of  the  Church  were  deputed  by  the  Com- 
mission to  officiate  in  the  parishes  of  the  suspended  clergy- 
men. In  Marnoch,  and  the  seven  parishes  in  its  neighbor- 
hood, their  warm  and  zealous  ministry  gathered  around  them 
crowds  of  attentive  and  devout  hearers.  "  I  have  no  words," 
wrote  one  of  these  clergymen,^  "  to  describe  the  scenes  of  yes- 
terday at  Marnoch.  Never  in  ray  life  has  it  been  my  privilege 
to  witness  such  intensity  of  feeling  as  in  that  congregation- 
Men  and  women  were  bathed  in  tears  ;  numbers  rose  to  their 
feet,  and  stood  in  breathless  attention,  and  at  the  close  of 
the  service  all  seemed  unwilling  to  retire."  In  proportion^ 
however,  to  the  interest  excited  amorig  the  people  must  have 
been  the  annoyance  to  the  suspended  clergymen.  Unsatisfied 
with  the  exclusive  possession  of  their  churches,  church-yards, 
and  school-houses,  they  renewed  their  applicatien  to  the 
Court  of  Session,  which,  on  the  14th  February,  by  a  decision 
which  outran  all  its  predecessors,  granted  to  its  full  extent 
the  prayer  of  their  primary  petition.  In  doing  so,  that 
Court  not  only  suspended  a  spiritual  censure  passed  by  the 
proper  ecclesiastical  authorities,  being  guilty  thus  of  a  direct 
interference  with  the  spiritual  discipline  of  the  Church,  but 
by  drawing  a  fence  round  a  whole  district  of  the  country,, 
and  by  prohibiting  any  member  of  the  Establishment  from 
preaching  or  administering  the  sacraments  within  its  bounds, 
it  at  once  deprived  such  of  the  people  as  remained  true  to 
the  Church,  of  all  freedom  to  worship  God  according  to  their 
conscience,  and  it  assumed  the  right  of  dictating  to  the 
Church  where,  and  where  only,  by  whom  and  to  whom, 
the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel  were  to  be  administered.  It 
was  an  open  invasion  of  the  most  sacred  territory  of  the 
Church,  and  it  met  with  a  resistance  at  once  prompt  and 
decisive. 

*  The  Rev.  Mr.  Buchan  of  Hamilton. 


JET.  60.  SPEECH  AT  THE  COIVIMISSION.  153 

The  Church  instantly  made  known  her  resolution,  and  fol- 
lowed it  out  with  unfaltering  footstep.  At  a  pubhc  meeting 
held  in  Edinburgh  on  Monday,  the  24th  of  February,  Dr. 
Chalmers  said — "  We  come  not  here  to  sound  the  trumpet 
of  defiance,  or  make  boastful  proclamation  of  whom  we 
disobey.  We  come  here  as  to  an  Assembly  of  fellow-Chris- 
tians, and  would  Hft  in  your  hearing  the  solemn  proclamation 
of  whom  we  do  obey.  We  stand  before  you  as  sons  and 
servants  of  the  Church  which  Providence  hath  set  up  in 
these  realms  for  the  Christian  good  of  the  families  of  Scot- 
land. We  profess  subjection  to  her  authority  when,  acting 
under  the  perpetual  obligation  of  the  precept,  '  Go  and  preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature  under  Heaven,'  she,  within  the 
limits  of  her  own  domain  passes  her  spiritual  and  sacred  or- 
dinances for  the  religious  government  of  our  Scottish  parishes 
— for  the  moral  and  religious  well-being  of  our  Scottish  fami- 
lies. This  is  our  principle,  and  this  the  form  in  which  we 
would  propound  it.  But  let  there  be  no  mistake.  Should 
any  earthly  power — should  the  Court  of  Session,  vested  with 
legitimate  authority  in  the  things  of  Caesar,  stretch  forth  her 
hand  to  intromit  or  intermeddle  with  these  undoubted  things 
of  God,  then,  if  the  character  of  an  act  is  to  re^^eive  its  de- 
signation, not  from  the  obstacle  over  which  it  has  to  pass,  but 
from  the  urgent  principle  which  impels  to  the  performance 
of  it,  then  let  our  act  be  named  by  that  which  is  its  actu- 
ating motive — obedience  to  the  Head  of  the  Church,  rather 
than  by  that  which  is  not  its  actuating  motive — disobedience 
to  the  Court  of  Session.  Still,  whatever  imputation  be  cast 
on  our  principles,  let  no  ambiguity  rest  upon  our  conduct. 
If  the  Church  command,  and  the  Court  countermand,  a 
spiritual  service  from  any  of  our  office-bearers,  then  it  is  the 
duty  of  all  the  ministers  and  all  the  members  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  to  do  precisely  as  they  should  have  done  though 
no  interdict  had  come  across  their  path." 

The  Commission  of  Assembly  met  on  the  4th  March,  and 
its  tone  was  no  less  firm   and  decided.      "  There  are  two 


154  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

questions,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  addressing  it,  "  wherewith 
in  our  present  position,  we  are  now  impUcated  ;  and  what 
I  fear  is,  that  neither  the  Church  nor  the  country,  in  the 
gregarious  movement  of  parties  and  of  masses,  will  make  the 
right  discrimination  between  them.  There  is  one  of  these 
questions  which  I  would  call  the  determinate  one,  by  which 
I  mean  that  it  admits  of  but  one  solution,  or  one  way  of 
disposing  of  it :  I  mean  the  question  of  our  spiritual  independ- 
ence. There  are  not  two  ways  of  resolving  this  question. 
It  is  a  question  on  which  all  compromise  is  impossible — we 
have  no  choice  ;  but  must  do  by  it  what  the  Apostle  Paul 
did  by  the  doctrine  of  justification  through  faith,  who  felt  that 
by  yielding  to  the  slightest  encroachment,  he  would  be  mak- 
ing a  surrender  of  the  whole  principle.  And  therefore  he 
tells  us  of  its  adversaries,  however  slight  or  imperceptible 
their  inroad  was,  *  to  whom  we  give  place  by  subjection,  no, 
not  for  an  hour.'  In  like  manner,  when  invasion  is  offered 
by  whatever  party,  and  to  however  insignificant  a  degree, 
on  the  spiritual  power  of  the  Church's  government  in  things 
which  are  spiritual,  we  take  up  his  language  and  say,  '  to 
whom  we  give  place  by  subjection,  no,  not  for  an  hour.'  It 
is  not  a  question  of  degree — it  is  a  question  of  principle  ; 
and  when  called  to  recede  by  a  single  inch  from  that  line  of 
demarkation  between  the  ecclesiastical  and  the  civil,  on  which 
we  have  planted  our  footsteps,  we  have  only  one  reply — that 
we  can  not,  we  dare  not.  We  trust  that  this  will  both  ex- 
plain and  vindicate  the  position  we  have  maintained  from 
the  first  outset  of  the  present  misunderstanding.  We  saw 
the  mischief  at  its  commencement :  we  saw  it  in  what  may 
be  termed  its  seminal  principle,  and,  as  it  were,  through  its 
rudimental  or  embryo  wrapping,  from  the  first  deliverance 
of  the  Civil  Courts  on  the  case  of  Auchterarder.  The  pub- 
lic did  not  comprehend,  and  at  the  time  did  not  sympathize 
with  us.  The  celebrated  interdict  against  preaching  has  at 
length  opened  their  eyes.  It  has  been  a  great  astonishment 
to  them,  but  it  was  no  astonishment  to  us.      We  then  saw 


.ET.  60.  THE  BROKEiN  LNTERDICTS.  155 

in  the  germ  what  they  now  see  in  the  development  or  full- 
blown expansion  of  the  evil.  The  Court  of  Session  have  all 
along  been  most  consistent  with  themselves.  JVe  were  not 
at  all  surprised  by  their  last  inroad  on  the  hallowed  ground 
of  the  Church  ;  nor  should  we  be  in  the  least  surprised 
though,  assuming  a  farther  mastery  over  the  gospel's  most 
sacred  ordinances,  they  were  to  give  forth  their  prohibitions 
and  their  mandates  on  the  matter  of  sacraments,  as  they 
have  already  done  on  the  matter  of  sermons,  and  compel  at 
their  bidding  the  prostrate  Church  to  administer  Baptism 
and  the  Lord's  Supper  to  all  or  any  whom  they  shall  judge 
in  a  civil  action  to  have  made  good  their  right  to  it.  I 
trust,  therefore,  that  my  Lord  Tweeddale  will  recall  the 
threat  which,  at  an  Intrusion  meeting  in  East  Lothian,  he 
cast  out  the  other  day  against  us  ecclesiastics.  He  seems 
to  intimate  that  before  we  can  obtain  any  redress  of  our 
grievances  from  the  Legislature,  we  must  retrace  the  way 
that  we  have  gone,  and  make  our  submission  to  the  Court 
of  Session.  Why,  this  would  be  lording  it  over  us  with  a 
vengeance  I  It  would  be  making  us  swallow  the  whole  prin- 
ciple ;  and  the  ^Church  of  Scotland,  bereft  of  all  moral 
weight,  might  henceforth  be  cast,  a  useless  and  degraded 
thing,  into  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  I  am  glad,  through  the 
medium  of  this  respected  nobleman,  the  representative  of  a 
numerous  and  influential  class,  to  take  the  opportunity  of 
saying  one  word  against  a  misconception,  I  fear  too  common, 
both  among  Peers  and  among  Parliament-men.  It  is  right, 
and  may  serve  to  simplify  the  question,  that  they  should  dis- 
tinctly know  the  grounds  upon  which  we  stand.  Be  it 
known,  then,  unto  all  men,  that  we  shall  not  retract  one 
single  footstep — we  shall  make  no  submission  to  the  Court  of 
Session — and  that,  not  because  of  the  disgrace,  but  because 
of  the  gross  and  grievous  dereliction  of  principle,  that  we 
should  thereby  incur.  They  may  force  the  ejection  of  us 
from  our  places  :  they  shall  never,  never,  force  us  to  the  sur- 
render of  our  principles  ;   and  if  that  honorable  Court  shall 


156  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 


again  so  far  mistake  their  functions  as  to  repeat  or  renew 
the  inroads  they  have  already  made,  we  trust  they  will  ever 
meet  with  the  same  reception  they  have  already  gotten — to 
whom  we  shall  give  place  by  subjection,  no,  not  for  an  hour 
— no,  not  by  an  hair-breadth." 

Interdicts  without  number  were  served  upon  those  clergy- 
men who  had  received  appointments  to  preach  in  the  banned 
district,  but  they  dealt  with  them  as  the  apostles  dealt  with 
a  like  interdict  of  the  Sanhedrim  of  Jerusalem.  That  they 
might  take  their  share  in  all  the  risk,  and  give  their 
brethren  all  the  sanction  of  their  example,  Dr.  Chalmers, 
Dr.  Makellar,  Dr.  Gordon,  and  others  of  like  standing  in  the 
Church,  in  the  face  of  interdicts  served  personally  upon  each 
of  them,  went  and  preached  in  the  district  of  Strathbogie. 
Why  was  the  threat,  so  gravely  made,  that  the  next  breach 
of  Interdict  would  certainly  be  followed  up  by  imprisonment, 
not  now  carried  out  ?  Whatever  was  the  reason  for  it,  that 
threat  remained  unexecuted,  and  broken  and  dishonored 
interdicts  lay  scattered  over  the  country  without  a  single 
effort  made  to  vindicate  an  authority  so  often  and  so  con- 
spicuously disregarded.  Had  the  law  heen  legally  and 
righteously  administered,  it  could  not,  and  ought  not  to 
have  borne  such  an  indignity.  That  it  was  borne  without 
redress,  the  ordinary  foundations  of  law  and  justice  remain- 
ing meanwhile  untouched  and  unshaken,  is  a  very  signal  evi- 
dence that  in  the  general  judgment  of  the  country  the  Court 
of  Session  had  been  guilty  of  a  rash  and  unconstitutional  act. 
It  was  a  state  of  things,  however,  too  anomalous  to  be  suf- 
fered to  continue.  The  call  for  legislative  intervention  was 
loud  and  urgent,  and  it  might  have  been  hoped  that  an 
enlightened  and  vigorous  Government  would  have  found 
some  speedy  and  effective  cure. 


CHAPTER    X. 

PROSPECT  OF  A  SATISFACTORY  MEASURE  FROM  THE 
WHIG  GOVERNMENT— THE  HOPE  DEFEATED— THE 
CHURCH  TURNS  TO  THE  CONSERVATIVES— CORRE- 
SPONDENCE BETWEEN  LORD  ABERDEEN,  DR.  CHAL- 
MERS,  AND  THE   NON-INTRUSION  COMMITTEE— THE 

BILL THE    MISUNDERSTANDING THE    CHARGE 

MADE  BY  LORD  ABERDEEN— THE  MANNER  IN  WHICH 
IT  WAS  MET  BY  DR.  CHALMERS. 

Parliament  had  once  more  assembled,  and  in  petitions 
more  numerously  signed  than  any  which  had  been  presented 
since  the  days  of  the  Reform  Bill,  the  Scottish  people  asked 
for  a  measure  to  relieve  and  to  protect  their  Church.  To 
promote  this  object  a  deputation  from  the  Assembly's  Com- 
mittee proceeded  to  London  early  in  February,  1840,  and, 
instructed  to  disconnect  their  object  in  every  possible  way 
from  party  politics,  they  placed  themselves  in  immediate 
communication  with  all  the  leading  statesmen,  whether 
Whig  or  Tory.  It  was  upon  the  Government,  however, 
that  the  first  obligation  to  move  in  the  matter  rested,  and 
the  hopes  which  at  the  close  of  the  preceding  session  it  had 
permitted  the  Church  to  cherish  it  seemed  at  first  ready  to 
realize.  "  I  lose  no  time,"  said  one  of  the  deputation  in 
writing  to  Dr.  Chalmers,*'  "  in  making  you  aware  that  we 
have  now  every  cause  to  believe  that  the  Government  are 
undoubtedly  at  work  upon  a  measure,  and  one  likely  to  be 
satisfactory  to  the  Church."  The  day  was  named  on  which 
the  final,  and  as  it  was  believed  the  favorable,  answer  of  the 
Government  would  be  communicated  to  the  deputation. 
That  day,  however,  brought  with  it  a  darkening  of  the 
*  The  Rev.  Dr.  Robert  Buchanan,  in  letter  dated  17th  March,  1840. 


158  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

prospect.  "  From  all  that  we  can  learn,"  says  Dr.  Bu- 
chanan, "  Government  were  prepared  two  days  ago  to  have 
announced  to  us  a  measure  substantially  the  same  with  the 
Veto.  Meanwhile,  it  would  appear,  some  adverse  influence 
— dissenting,  it  is  believed — has  crossed  their  path,  and  we 
have  been  placed  in  this  position — left  either  to  ask  our 
answer  to-day,  as  we  had  been  promised,  with  the  certainty 
of  getting  it,  but  getting  an  answer  that  would  tell  us  no- 
thing, or  to  consent  not  to  ask  till  Thursday,  with  an  assur- 
ance that  we  shall  undoubtedly  have  it  fully  and  finally  on 
that  day."^  The  Thursday  came,  but  still  the  Government 
was  unresolved.  At  last,  however,  their  determination  was 
announced  : — ''  We  have  just  had  an  interview  with  Lord 
John  Russell.  His  answer  is,  that  they  can  not  consent  to 
bring  in  a  measure.  He  said  he  thought  they  could  have 
prepared  a  measure  which,  hi  their  oivn  vieiv  of  the  matter, 
might  have  sisrved  the  purpose,  but  that  there  was  so  much 
disagreement  and  difference  of  opinion  every  where  on  the 
subject,  they  thought  there  was  no  chance  of  carrying 
through  a  measure,  and  therefore  that  they  would  not 
meddle  with  it — at  least  till  there  was  a  greater  agreement 
on  the  subject.  So  this  is  the  end  of  all  our  dealings  with 
a  Government  which  has  kept  us  waiting  eight  months  to 
tell  us  they  will  do  nothing.  But  let  us  not  despair — our 
cause  is  righteous  ;  and  though  great  men  may  frown,  let 
us  trust  that  the  Church's  Head  will  smile.  Meanwhile  we 
must  persevere  in  the  use  of  means  with  more  energy  than 
ever.  Never  let  it  be  said  the  Church  of  Scotland  blenched 
before  the  opposition  of  men  in  power.  It  is  when  dif- 
ficulties increase  we  must  become  more  firm."t  Deserted 
by  the  Whigs,  the  Church  turned  now  to  the  Conservatives 
upon  whom,  indeed,  from  the  beginning  her  chief  hopes  had 
been  built.  So  early  as  the  month  of  January,  Lord  Aber- 
deen, Sir  George  Clerk,  and  Sir  William  R-ae  had  an  inter- 

*  From  letter  dated  23d  March,  1840. 
t  From  letter  dated  30th  March.  1840. 


JET.  60.     LETTER  FROM  LORD  ABERDEEN.        159 

view  at  Edinburgh  with  the  Non-intrusion  Committee, 
which  led  to  a  lengthened  correspondence  between  Lord 
Aberdeen,  Dr.  Chalmers,  and  the  Committee,  from  which 
the  following  excerpts  are  presented  : 

Argtle  House,  January  22d,  1840. 

"  My  dear  Sir — In  a  letter  which  I  addressed,  the  day 
before  yesterday,  to  the  secretaries  of  the  Non-Intrusion  Com- 
mittee, in  answer  to  a  communication  received  from  them,  I 
took  occasion  to  repeat  the  suggestion  which  I  had  the  honor 
of  making  to  the  Committee  at  their  meeting  on  the  1 0th 
instant,  as  a  substitute  for  the  Veto.  It  appeared  to  me  that 
this  suggestion,  if  adopted,  would  give  full  effect  to  the  princi- 
ple of  Non-Intrusion,  which,  according  to  any  rational  inter- 
pretation of  the  term,  I  am  anxious  to  uphold.  Although 
my  letter  will  probably  be  laid  before  you,  I  transcribe  here 
the  substance  of  the  suggestion  referred  to  ;  and  which,  at 
the  time  it  was  made,  appeared  to  meet  with  a  decidedly 
favorable  reception  from  the  Committee. 

"  That  the  Presbytery  shall  be  bound  to  take  a  qualified 
presentee  on  trials  ;  and  in  the  course  of  the  proceedings  pre- 
vious to  ordination,  the  objections  of  the  parishioners,  if  any, 
shall  be  received  and  duly  weighed  by  the  Presbytery.  Such 
objections,  in  every  case,  to  be  accompanied  with  reasons  as- 
signed ;  but  the  Presbytery  to  be  at  liberty  to  consider  the 
whole  circumstances  of  the  case  before  them,  and  to  form  their 
judgment  without  reference  to  the  actual  number  of  persons 
dissenting,  or  their  proportion  to  the  whole  amount  of  com- 
municants and  heads  of  families  in  the  parish.  The  decision 
of  the  Presbytery,  with  respect  to  the  fitness  of  any  individual 
for  the  charge  to  which  he  is  presented,  to  be  founded  on 
such  full  and  mature  consideration,  and  to  be  pronounced 
on  their  own  responsibility,  and  according  to  the  dictates  of 
their  hearts  and  consciences  ;  all  proceedings  before  the  Pres- 
bytery to  be  liable  to  review  in  the  Superior  Church  Courts. 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Chalmers."  "  ABERDEEN. 


160  MEMIORS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840 

Edinburgh,  January  'Zlth,  1840. 

"  My  Lord — What  I  should  have  liked  best  was  a  full 
recognition  by  the  Legislature  of  the  Church's  competency  to 
deal,  whether  legislatively  or  judicially,  with  every  question 
which  related  to  the  ordination  and  admission  of" ministers, 
reserving  the  patron's  initiative,  and  at  the  same  time  pro- 
tecting us  from  all  interference  by  the  Court  of  Session  in 
the  subsequent  steps  taken  by  the  Church,  after  that  the  pre- 
sentation was  laid  before  us.  This  your  Lordship  will  recollect 
to  have  been  the  substance  of  the  propositions  sent  to  you  at 
Haddo  House  before  you  left  home. 

"  When  we  met  at  Dalmahoy,  your  Lordship  stated  as  your 
objection  to  the  above  proposal,  that  it  did  not  preclude  the 
General  Assembly  from  maintaining  the  Veto  Law. 

"  I  next  morning  endeavored  to  modify  the  proposition,  and 
confined  the  recognition  by  the  State  to  the  Church's  com- 
petency to  deal  judicially  with  the  questions  at  issue,  think- 
ing that  thereby  the  matter  would  be  brought  into  conformity 
with  your  Lordship's  views.  I  gave  your  Lordship  that  modi- 
fied view,  aloiig  with  a  copy  of  the  Bill  which  had  been  pre- 
viously given  to  the  Lord  Advocate. 

"When  we  met  with  the  Committee  in  Edinburgh,  the 
impression  I  had  from  the  conversation  was,  that  we  were  all 
substantially  at  one,  both  as  to  the  accompaniment  of  their 
dissent  with  reasons  by  the  people,  and  as  to  the  full  power 
of  the  Presbytery  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  whole  case.  I  had 
the  feeling  at  the  time,  that  as  this  seemed  to  be  the  common 
understanding  of  both  parties  in  the  conference,  it  was  un- 
necessary in  some  of  our  members  to  specify  the  particular  case 
of  a  Presbytery  not  being  satisfied  with  the  reasons  produced, 
and  yet  sustaining  the  dissent  when  satisfied  of  its  proceeding 
from  a  real  and  honestly  expressed  dislike  on  the  part  of  the 
people — thinking,  as  I  did,  that  the  fullness  of  the  judicial 
power  intrusted  to  the  Presbytery,  comprehended  this  and  ev- 
ery other  case  that  could  possibly  occur  or  be  imagined.  But 
even  this  specification  did  not  appear  to  me  to  disturb  our 


JET.  60.      LETTER  TO  LORD  ABERDEEN.         161 


unanimity,  as  your  Lordship,  I  thought,  did  not  object  to  a 
dissent  being  sustained  even  in  such  an  instance,  provided 
that  it  was  done  by  the  Presbytery  on  its  own  responsibihty. 

"  On  further  reflection,  I  am  satisfied  that  the  gentlemen 
who  brought  forward  the  instance  of  a  dissent  being  sustained, 
irrespective  of  the  reasons,  did  right.  First,  because  it  was 
fair  and  honest  that  you  should  understand  the  full  extent  of 
the  judicial  power  which  we  desire  for  the  Church.  Second, 
because,  though  the  reasons  as  expressed  by  the  people  might 
none  of  them  be  of  a  very  presentable  or  pleadable  character, 
there  might  after  all  be  a  well-founded  dislike  on  their  part, 
that  might  prove  a  most  effectual  moral  barrier  in  the  way 
of  a  minister's  Christian  usefulness  among  them.  And  third, 
because,  unless  the  measure  be  of  that  full  and  comprehensive 
nature  which  may  provide  for  every  possible  or  conceivable 
instance,  and  so  as  to  make  the  presbyterial  veto  quite  abso- 
lute, we  shall  not  be  placed  quite  securely  beyond  the  reach 
of  interference,  and  so  of  a  collision  with  the  Court  of  Session. 

"  In  reference  to  the  finality  of  the  presbyterial  veto,  which 
is  altogether  an  expression  of  my  own,  it  is  but  doing  justice 
to  my  long-cherished  opinions  when  I  say,  that  so  far  from 
conflicting  with  the  popular  veto,  I  believe  that  in  far  the 
greater  number  of  instances  it  will  never  be  more  righteously 
or  usefully  exercised  than  when  giving  effect  to  it.  Grant 
me  a  simple  and  sincere,  however  illiterate,  congregation,  and 
there  could  not  be  oflered  a  weightier  element  for  my  decision 
than  the  real  unwillingness  of  such  a  people  for  a  particular 
minister — if  satisfied  that  it  is  on  religious  grounds,  though 
grounds  which  can  neither  be  distinctly  stated  nor  far  less 
logically  defended  by  them. 

"  I  confess  that  were  the  Veto  Act  still  to  subsist,  I  should 
have  liked  to  see  a  modification  of  it,  at  least  to  the  efiect  of 
our  being  able  to  set  aside  the  popular  dissent  on  its  being 
proved  to  have  been  a  dissent  not  from  religious  motives.  In 
the  free  exercise  of  our  proposed  judicial  power,  we  shall  be 
able  to  take  cognizance  of  this  element,  and  to  decide  upon  it. 


162  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

If  there  be  at  all  a  difference  betwixt  us,  it  is  whether  we  are 
to  have  a  perfect  and  unexcepted  freedom.  Sir  George  Clerk, 
both  in  word  and  in  writing,  seems  to  concede  this,  and  I 
flatter  myself  that  your  Lordship  does  not  differ  from  him. 
The  instance  given  is  perhaps  the  best  possible  for  testing 
the  whole  extent  of  our  freedom.  We  are  willing  that  reasoni 
should  always  accompany  dissent,  and  that  these  reasons 
should  be  dealt  with  and  canvassed  to  the  uttermost ;  but 
we  are  not  willing  that  we  should  be  bound  to  admit  the 
presentee,  if  the  people  do  not  make  good  their  reasons.  On 
the  contrary,  we  hold  ourselves  free,  though  not  obliged,  to 
exclude  a  presentee  because  of  the  strength  of  the  popular 
dislike,  though  not  substantiated  by  express  reasons — a  case 
which  may  occur,  though  not  once  in  a  hundred,  I  believe 
not  once  in  a  thousand  times.  The  Act  of  1690  requires 
that  reasons  shall  accompany  the  dissent,  and  to  this  we  ob- 
ject not ;  and  it  empowers  the  Presbytery  to  judge,  not  on 
the  reasons  alone,  but  on  the  whole  '  affair.'  With  this,  I 
think,  (though  your  Lordship  will  now  observe  I  am  writing 
my  individual  opinion)  we  will  and  ought  to  be  satisfied.  If 
your  Lordship  were  alike  satisfied,  I  do  not  see  but  we  are 
thoroughly  at  one. 

"We  do  not  say  that  we  desire  the  Church  to  be  bound 
in  every  instance,  as  by  a  Veto  Law,  to  reject  the  presentee 
in  respect  of  a  dissent  irrespective  of  the  grounds  ;  but  that 
the  Church  will  not  abandon  the  power  of  so  rejecting  him, 
if  it  seem  to  her  right.  Short  of  this  we  shall  be  exposed 
to  the  same  shameful  treatment  of  our  people  which  disgraced 
the  ecclesiastical  proceedings  of  last  century,  with  the  fresh 
danger  now  of  the  Court  of  Session  finding  its  way,  through 
some  opening  or  other,  to  the  proper  business  of  a  Church  not 
secured  in  the  full  exercise  of  her  judicial  and  administrative 
powers,  in  every  case  that  comes  before  us. 

"  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"P.  S. — I  beg  to  copy  the  following  sentence  of  a  letter 
received  from  Sir  George  Clerk,  which  meets  with  my  full 


MT.  60.  CORRESPONDENCE.  163 

concurrence  ;  and  I  really  do  not  see  what  the  remaining 
obstacle  is  to  a  general  agreement,  if  it  also  meet  the  views 
of  your  Lordship  : 

"  The  leading  features  of  the  plan  which  was  suggested 
were  these,  that  full  opportunity  should  be  given  to  the 
people  to  express  their  dissent ;  that  they  should  assign,  for 
the  information  and  the  consideration  of  the  Presbytery,  the 
grounds  of  their  objections  to  the  presentee  ;  and  that  then 
the  Presbytery,  subject  to  the  review  of  the  superior  Church 
Courts  alone,  should  have  full  and  unfettered  power  to 
decide  judicially  on  the  fitness  or  unfitness  of  the  presentee 
for  the  particular  parish,  as  their  conscience  and  a  sense  of 
duty  might  direct,  on  the  consideration  of  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  they  being  free  either  to  admit  or  reject 
the  presentee,  without  being  bound  either  by  the  numerical 
amount  of  the  objectors,  or  the  precise  nature  of  the  reasons 
of  dissent  assigned.'  " 

"  Argyle  House,  February/  6th,  1840. 

"  My  dear  Sir — I  can  not  help  thanking  you  for  your 
last  letter  ;  with  the  sentiments  expressed  in  which  I  almost 
entirely  concur.  I  am  also  happy  to  perceive  that  you  did 
not  misapprehend  the  import  of  my  former  communication. 
This  the  Committee  very  unaccountably  did  ;  but  the 
matter  is  now  explained,  and  I  am  not  aware  of  any  mate- 
rial difference  existing  in  the  objects  proposed  by  the  Com- 
mittee, and  those  which  I  should  be  prepared  to  support. 

"Aberdeen. 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Chalmers." 

The  following  letters  supply  the  necessary  information  as 
to  what  that  misapprehension  was  to  which  his  Lordship 
here  alludes. 

"  Edinburgh,  January  '2Sth,  1840. 
"My  Lord — It  appears  to  the  Committee  that  the  result 
of  your  Lordship's  proposition  would  be,   to  leave   to  the 
Church  Courts  simply  to  determine  on  the  character  of  the 


164  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

reasons  adduced  for  objecting  to  a  presentee — preventing 
them  from  giving  effect,  even  in  a  judicial  determination,  to 
their  views  of  the  inexpediency  of  a  settlement  in  respect  of 
the  opposition  of  the  people,  apart  from  their  opinion  of  the 
character  of  the  reasons  alleged  for  such  opposition — nay, 
excluding,  as  an  element  in  that  determination,  the  circum- 
stance of  w^hether  the  objection  be  entertained  by  a  few  in- 
dividuals, or  the  great  body  of  the  congregation.  The  Com- 
mittee regret  the  more  to  find  that  such  are  your  Lordship's 
views,  as  when  at  the  conference  Sir  George  Clerk  expressed 
his  acquiescence  in  the  proposition,  that  the  Church  Courts 
should  have  the  power  of  judically  giving  effect  to  the  ob- 
jections of  the  people,  whatever  opinion  they  might  form  of 
their  reasons  for  objecting,  the  Committee  were  not  aware 
that  your  Lordship  had  stated  any  dissent  from  Sir  George's 
opinions. 

"  Although  the  Committee  were  inclined,  which  they  are 
not,  they  have  not  the  power  even  to  entertain  such  a  pro- 
position, involving  as  it  does  the  abandonment  of  that  very 
principle  which  the  Assembly,  by  whom  they  were  appointed, 
resolved  could  not  be  abandoned.  The  special  object  with 
which  they  have  been  charged  is,  to  endeavor  to  have  it 
secured  that  the  Church  Courts  may,  without  severing  the 
benefice  from  the  cure,  give  effect,  where  they  see  cause,  to 
the  opposition  of  the  people,  indeiiendent  of  their  opinion 
of  the  reasons  on  icliich  that  opposition  tnay  be  founded. 
The  proposal  that  the  power  of  the  Church  in  this  matter 
should  be  exercised  judicially  in  each  case,  and  free  from 
the  imperative  obligation  of  an  unbending  statutory  rule  ; 
and  that  the  reasons  of  disapproval  should  be  stated,  in  order 
to  admit  of  the  Church  Courts  dealing  with  regard  to  them, 
was  one  that  the  Committee  might  have  considered  (ivliat- 
ever  judgment  they  anight  idtimately  have  formed  upon  it), 
without  violating  the  terms  of  their  appointment ;  but  any 
proposition  implying  that  the  Church  should  not  have  power 
to  reject,  simply  in  respect  of  the  circumstance  that  the  con- 


JET.  60.  CORRESPONDENCE.  165 


A.   DUNLOP, 


[  Secretaries. 


gregation   continued  to  oppose  the  settlement,  they  can  not 
listen  to  for  a  moment. 

RoBT.  S.  Candlish, 

)UNLOP, 

"  Argtle  House,  February  1st,  1840. 

*'  Gentlemen— It  is  very  agreeable  to  me  to  be  able  to 
assure  you  that  you  have  entirely  misapprehended  the  import 
of  my  letter. 

"  I  should  hope,  on  a  reference  to  my  letter,  that  it  will 
be  found  sufficiently  clear  and  explicit,  and  that  there  is  no 
expression  which  can  fairly  be  understood  to  limit  or  fetter 
the  discretion  of  the  Presbytery  in  the  ordination  and  admis- 
sion of  ministers.  But  after  all,  as  it  is  intended  to  place 
them  in  a  slate  of  freedom,  and  to  liberate  them  from  the 
obligations  of  the  Veto  Law,  the  Presbytery,  like  other  men, 
must  be  governed  by  rational  considerations. 

"  In  order  to  prevent  farther  misapprehension,  I  will  ex- 
plain by  an  imaginary  case,  in  what  manner  I  understand 
the  proposal,  and  the  mode  of  its  operation.  It  is  agreed 
that,  in  all  cases,  the  people  objecting  to  a  presentee,  shall 
assign  the  reasons  of  their  dissent,  be  they  what  they  may. 
Now,  let  us  suppose  that  any  number  of  persons  should 
object  to  a  presentee  because  he  had  red  hair.  This  would, 
no  doubt,  be  a  very  bad  reason  ;  but  if  they  persevered  in 
their  hatred  of  red  hair,  and  the  Presbytery  found  it  con- 
sistent with  their  sense  of  duty,  and  the  dictates  of  their  own 
consciences,  they  might  give  effect  to  the  objection  by  reject- 
ing the  presentee.  But  then  the  reason  of  dissent  on  the 
part  of  the  people,  as  well  as  the  rejection  by  the  Presbytery, 
would  be  recorded ;  and  if  the  superior  Church  Courts  should 
confirm  the  decision,  the  matter  would  there  terminate.  It 
is  to  this  publicity,  and  to  the  common  sense  and  justice  of 
mankind,  that  I  look  for  a  security  against  arbitrary  and 
capricious  proceedings  in  any  quarter. 

''  Aberdeen." 


166  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840 

"Edinburgh,  February  Ath,  1840. 
"  My  Lord — The  Committee  are  gratified  to  find  that 
they  have  so  entirely  misapprehended  your  Lordship's  senti- 
ments, and  they  trust  that  they  do  not  misunderstand  them 
now,  in  supposing  you  to  agree  that  the  Church  Courts 
should  have  the  2^oiver  to  reject  a  presentee  in  consideration 
of  the  continued  opposition  of  the  people,  although  they 
should  think  the  reasons  assigned  for  that  opposition  as  friv- 
olous as  that  in  the  case  supposed  by  your  Lordship,  viz.,  his 
hair  being  red.  Your  Lordship's  proposition  thus  explained, 
will  receive  from  the  Committee  an  attentive  and  favorable 
consideration.  A.  Dunlop." 

Matters  rested  thus  when  the  Government  relinquished 
the  attempt  to  introduce  a  Bill  into  Parliament,  Lord 
Aberdeen  took  up  the  task.  Acting  upon  his  own  individual 
responsibility,  he  declined  entering  into  any  communication 
with  the  Non-Intrusion  Committee.  He  announced,  how- 
ever, his  purpose  to  Dr.  Chalmers  : 

"  Argyle  House,  Ajr)-il  Atli,  1840. 

"  My  DEAR  Sir — You  will  have  seen  from  the  public 
papers  that  I  have  undertaken  to  introduce  a  Bill  into  Par- 
liament for  the  purpose  of  attempting  to  heal  the  present 
distractions  of  the  Church. 

"  My  chief  object  in  writing  to  you  at  present  is  to 
explain  to  you,  that  the  principle  of  ray  measure  will  be 
founded  on  the  recognition  of  the  judicial  powers  of  the 
Church  Courts  in  the  matters  in  question — very  much  in  ac- 
cordance with  your  own  views  of  that  which,  though  not 
the  most  desirable,  might  be  regarded  as  the  most  practicable 
solution  of  the  existing  difficulties.  Aberdeen." 

Upon  the  5th  May,  Lord  Aberdeen  introduced  his  meas- 
ure  to  the  House  of  Lords,  after  retiring  from  which  he 
wrote  thus  to  Dr.  Chalmers  : 


^T.  60.  LORD  ABERDEEN'S  BILL.  167 

"  My  dear  Sir — I  can  not  retire  to  rest  this  night  with- 
out informing  you  that  I  have  presented  a  Bill  to  the  House 
of  Lords,  having  for  its  object  the  termination  of  those  unhap- 
py differences  by  which  the  Church  of  Scotland  is  distracted. 

"  I  deceive  myself,  if  the  report  which  you  may  receive 
from  Mr.  Buchanan  and  Mr.  Hamilton  will  not  show  that, 
in  all  my  communications  with  these  gentlemen,  I  have 
evinced  a  sincere  desire  to  meet  their  views  to  the  utmost  of 
my  power ;  although,  unfortunately,  I  may  not  in  every 
instance  have  been  able  to  adopt  their  suggestions.  After 
all,  however,  I  am  well  aware  that  the  success  of  this 
measure  will  mainly  depend  on  the  reception  with  which  it 
may  meet  from  yourself  I  believe  that  the  peace  of  the 
Church  is  at  this  moment  in  your  hands;  for  although,  from 
the  accident  of  birth  and  social  position,  I  have  had  the 
means  of  proposing  this  measure  to  the  Legislature,  it  will 
depend  on  you  whether  it  is  to  receive  life  and  efficacy. 

"  I  pray  that  you  may  be  led  by  the  spirit  of  wisdom ; 
and  that  your  great  talents  may  be  directed  to  the  restora- 
tion of  peace  and  order,  and  to  the  happy  union  of  all  the 
real  friends  of  the  Church. 

'  Semper  honos,  iiomenque  tuum,  laudesque  manebunt !' 

"Aberdeen." 

The  Bill  introduced  by  Lord  Aberdeen  allowed  the  parish- 
ioners to  state  objections  of  all  kinds  to  the  presentee  ;  but  it 
obliged  them,  at  the  same  time,  to  state  the  grounds  and 
reasons  of  their  objections.  It  allowed  the  Presbytery  to 
take  all  these  objections  into  consideration,  but  it  permitted 
them  to  give  effect  to  them  only  when  personal  to  the 
presentee,  when  legally  substantiated,  and  when  sufficient, 
in  their  judgment,  to  warrant  his  rejection.  It  altogether 
excluded  a  dissent  without  reasons.  It  disallowed  unac- 
ceptableness  to  the  people  as  a  disqualification.  It  refused 
to  the  Presbytery  the  power  of  giving  effect  in  any  instance  to 
the    popular    opposition    simply   as    such,   no  matter    how 


168  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

general  or  how  strong  that  opposition  might  be.  That 
which  the  Veto  Law  had  said  should  be  done  in  every 
instance,  it  said  should  be  done  in  none.  It  left  the  judg- 
ment of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  Auchterarder  case  un- 
touched ;  and  it  offered  no  protection  whatever  against  such 
aggressions  on  the  part  of  the  Court  of  Session  as  it  had 
recently  committed.  Even  within  the  limited  domain  con- 
ceded to  the  Church,  the  Court  of  Session  would  be  the  final 
judges  whether  the  objections  on  which  a  Presbytery  re- 
jected were  such  as  the  Bill  allowed,  and  whether  they  had 
been  sufficiently  substantiated.  The  Presbytery  might  have 
the  strongest  possible  conviction  that,  acting  within  the 
provisions  of  the  Bill,  they  were  bound  to  reject ;  yet  if  the 
Court  of  Session  thought  otherwise,  they  would  be  bound  to 
ordain,  and  if  they  refused,  all  the  ordinary  consequences  of 
disobedience  to  the  common  law  of  the  country  would  follow. 
It  was  nominally  as  a  remedy  for  an  existing  evil  that  this 
Bill  was  introduced,  yet  it  left  that  evil  just  where  it  found 
it.  New  legislation  was  asked  for  and  required ;  yet  it 
professed  to  be  merely  a  declaratory  enactment,  and  did  not 
propose  to  effect  any  alteration  in  the  Law  of  Patronage,  as 
interpreted  by  the  two  Chancellors.  The  reader  will  not 
wonder,  therefore,  that  after  the  most  careful  and  candid 
perusal  of  it.  Dr.  Chalmers  should  have  written  thus  to 
Lord  Aberdeen  : 

"EdixbURGH,  May  IQth,  1840. 

"  My  Lord — I  have  now  examined  the  Bill ;  and  it  is 
with  inexpressible  grief  and  concern  that  I  am  forced  to  con- 
fess myself  dissatisfied.  Such  is  my  intense  desire  for  ad- 
justment and  peace,  that  all  my  tendencies  were  on  the  side 
of  putting  the  most  favorable  construction  on  every  clause, 
and  of  laboring  to  harmonize  with  all  my  might  its  various 
provisions  with  that  independence  which  belongs  to  a  Chris- 
tian Church,  and  which  we  did  not  renounce  in  the  act  of 
becoming  a  National  Church.      I  little  thought,  my  Lord, 


JET.  60.  THE  MISUNDERSTANDING.  169 

after  my  incessant  attempts  all  last  year  to  bring  down 
others  to  the  point  at  which  I  conceived  your  Lordship 
walling  for  a  settlement,  I  should  have  met  with  a  fresh 
obstacle  in  finding  that  your  Lordship  had  taken  up  a 
position  so  much  lower  than  I  was  counting  on.  I  find  my- 
self in  a  situation  precisely  analogous  to  that  I  was  un- 
expectedly brought  into  this  time  twelvemonth,  when  T  had 
resolved  to  move  the  transfer|ence  of  the  case  of  Auchter- 
arder  from  the  popular  to  the  presbyterial  veto,  and  was 
driven  from  that  position  by  the  speeches  of  Lords  Cottenham 
and  Brougham,  which  awakened  the  apprehension  that  even 
this  presbyterial  veto  would  not  be  sustained  in  the  Civil 
Courts.  Your  Bill,  my  Lord,  turns  this  apprehension  into 
a  certainty  ;  and  so  conflicts  with  a  principle  which  I  have 
zealously  advocated,  both  in  speeches  and  writing,  for  four- 
and-twenty  years — that  the  power  of  the  Presbytery  was  co- 
ordinate with  that  of  the  patron,  insomuch  that  it  lay  within 
the  competency  of  the  Church  to  put  an  arrest  upon  any  pre- 
sentation, for  any  cause  which  might  seem  unto  her  good. 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

His  Lordship  was  not  prepared  for  such  a  reception  of  his 
measure  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  and  a  painful  misunderstanding 
ensued  : 

"  Argyle  House,  May  I'ith,  1840. 

"  My  dear.  Sir — I  am  persuaded  that  you  are  under  a 
misapprehension  in  supposing  that  the  Bill  limits  or  restricts 
what  you  call  the  '  liberiim  arbitriimi'  of  the  Presbytery  in 
the  matter  of  collation.   *   *   *  Aberdeen." 

"Burntisland,  May  iBth,  1840. 
"  My   Lord — Your  Lordship  seems   to  think   that   the 
Bill,   as  it   stands,   does   not  limit  or  restrain  the  liberiim 
arbitrium  of  the  Presbytery.^      Now,  it  appears  to  me,  that 

*  "  I  state  it  absolutely  as  a  fact,  which  Lord  Aberdeen  will  confirm, 
that  if  there  was  any  object  which  both  he  himself  and  his  acute  and 
VOL    IV = — H 


170  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

it  does  so  in  one  most  important  particular.  The  Presbytery 
are  restricted  by  it  from  giving  effect  to  the  conscientious 
dissent  of  the  people,  on  the  ground  of  the  simple  fact  of 
that  dissent,  and  irrespective  of  reasons.  Even  supposing 
that  this  were  the  alone  restriction  laid  by  your  Bill  on  the 
liberum  arbitrium,  I  hope  to  convince  your  Lordship  of  the 
insuperable  barrier  which  it  raises  up  in  the  way  of  its  ac- 
ceptance by  the  Church.  *  *  *  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"Argyle  House,  May  \Qth  IMO. 

"  My  dear  Sir — Having  had  occasion  to  see  the  report 
of  the  recent  proceedings  of  the  Synod  of  Lothian  and 
Tweeddale,  and  to  mark  the  language  of  the  men  by  whom 
it  is  directed,  I  am  induced  again  to  address  you.  It  is  not 
possible  for  me  to  believe  that  you  can  have  any  community 
with  these  persons  ;  and  I  address  you  because  I  wish  to 
bring  distinctly  before  you  the  state  and  prospects  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland,  so  far  as  the  Legislature  is  concerned, 
as  well  as  respectfully  to  represent  to  you  the  awful  respon- 
sibility under  which  you  are  about  to  be  placed. 

"  I  have  now  only  to  pray  that,  by  an  effort  of  moral 
courage,  you  may  save  the  Establishment  from  the  dangers 
by  which  it  is  threatened.  But  whatever  may  be  the  course 
you  may  think  it  right  ultimately  to  adopt,  the  convictions 
of  my  conscience  assure  me  that  I  have  performed  my  own 
part  in  the  work,  feebly,  perhaps,  and  imperfectly,  but  hon- 
estly, and  with  a  single  view  to  this  great  end. 

"  Aberdeen." 

"  Edinburgh,  May  20th,  1840. 
"  My  Lord — I  feel  the  responsibility  of  my  situation,  and 

anxious  legal  adviser  were  determined,  at  all  hazards,  effectually  to 
secure  by  means  of  the  Bill,  it  was  just  the  entire  and  utter  exclusion 
of  the  '  liberum  arbitriuni'  of  Presbyteries  in  the  sense  in  which  it  was 
understood  by  the  Church." — Remonstrance^  ^c,  by  John  Hamilton^ 
Esq.     Edinburgh.  1841.     P.  64. 


JET.  60.  THE  MISUNDERSTANDING.  171 

have  long  made  up  my  mind  to  the  principle,  that  any  thing 
short  of  an  unfettered  spiritual  power  in  the  Church  would 
be  fatal  to  its  national  establishment. 

"  It  will  be  some  satisfaction  to  recollect,  that  in  this  prin- 
ciple I  had  the  entire  concurrence  of  Sir  James  Graham,  Sir 
George  Clerk,  Sir  William  Rae  ;  and  I  certainly  did  flatter 
myself  that  I  at  one  time  had  the  concurrence  of  your  Lord- 
ship in  this  view. 

"  I  can  assure  your  Lordship  that  the  moral  courage 
necessary  at  the  present  crisis  is  to  defend  our  Church  from 
the  invasions  which,  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  had  nev- 
er been  attempted  either  by  our  Courts  or  in  Parliament. 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"  Argyle  House,  May  2lsi,  1840. 

"  My  dear  Sir — Let  me  recall  to  your  recollection  what 
is  the  state  in  which  I  find  the  Church.  The  House  of 
Lords,  in  affirming  the  judgment  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
has  declared  that  a  Presbytery,  by  rejecting  a  presentee,  on 
the  sole  ground  that  a  majority  of  the  male  heads  of  fami- 
lies have  dissented,  without  any  reason  assigned,  from  his  ad- 
mission as  minister,  act  illegally,  in  violation  of  their  duty, 
and  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  the  statute. 

"  Now,  this  restriction  is  not  imposed  by  my  Bill,  but  by 
the  existing  law  of  the  land.  I  apprehend  that  no  Presby- 
tery will  be  permitted  in  future  to  reject  a  presentee  on  such 
grounds  ;  and  it  certainly  was  never  my  purpose  to  enable 
them  to  do  so.  Aberdeen." 

"Argyle  House,  May  23d,  1840. 

*<  My  dear  Sir — I  think  it  necessary  to  address  a  few 
words  to  you  in  answer  to  your  note  of  the  20th,  received 
last  night. 

"  You  say  that  it  will  be  some  satisfaction  to  you  to  rec- 
ollect that,  in  the  principle  of  your  proposed  amendment, 
enabling  the  Church  to  give  effect  to  the  mere  dissent  of  the 


172  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

people,  you  had  the  entire  concurrence  of  Sir  James  Graham, 
Sir  George  Clerk,  and  Sir  William  Rae.  Now  from  recent 
personal  communication  with  all  three,  I  can  venture  with 
certainty  to  assure  you  that  you  are  mistaken  in  this  persua- 
sion. I  will  go  further,  and  express  my  doubt  of  there  being 
a  single  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  M'ho  would  give 
the  proposition  his  support.  There  may  be  some  who  would 
grant  the  right  of  an  absolute  veto  to  the  people  ;  but  I 
greatly  doubt  if  any  would  be  disposed  to  recognize  in  the 
Church  that  power  which  your  amendment  would  confer. 

"In  the  House  of  Lords  I  could  name  but  one  member 
from  whom  such  support  might  be  expected. — Aberdeen." 

Edinburgh,  May  22d,  1840. 
"  My  Lop.d — There  must  be  a  profound  misunderstanding 
somewhere.  In  terms  as  explicit  as  human  language  can 
make  it,  I  have  the  assent  of  the  three  members  named  to  my 
own  principle  of  the  Presbyterial  Veto.=^  I  hope  to  see  Sir 
George  Clerk  on  the  subject ;  and  can  only  now  express  my 
regret  that  your  Lordship's  last  letters  do  not  warrant  the 
hopes  which  I  had  founded  on  all  our  previous  correspondence. 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

On  the  27  th  May  the  Report  of  the  Non-Intrusion  Com- 
mittee was  laid  before  the  General  Assembly  by  its  convener, 
Dr.  Chalmers.  After  detailing  the  different  measures  which 
had  been  presented  by  it  for  approval  to  the  leading  politicians, 
it  proceeded  to  allude  thus  to  the  Bill  of  Lord  Aberdeen  : 
"  With  reference  to  the  Bill  which  has  recently  been  intro- 
duced to  the  House  of  Lords,  your  Committee  are  in  no  way 

*  "  Lord  Aberdeen's  Bill,  unquestionably,  does  not  give  the  '  liberum 
arbitrium,^  in  this  sense  of  it,  to  the  Presbyteries  of  the  Church;  although 
I  may  state  that  one  and  all  of  the  leading  Conservative  Members  of 
Parliament,  with  whom  I  had  the  honor  to  confer  at  the  period  of  the 
Bill  being  inti'oduced,  were  of  opinion  that  it  ought  to  have  given  that 
power." — Remonstrance^  ^c,  by  John  Hamilton,  Esq..,  p.  63. — For  im- 
portant additional  evidence  on  this  point,  see  Appendix,  B. 


JET.  60.  THE  COMMITTEE'S  REPORT.  173 

responsible  for  its  provisions.  The  noble  framer  of  it  had 
ceased  to  honor  them  with  his  correspondence  for  some  weeks 
previous  to  its  introduction  into  Parliament ;  and  coming 
greatly  short  even  of  that  measure  in  favor  of  which  they 
had  been  led  to  anticipate  the  full  consent  of  all  the  influential 
members  of  both  Houses  with  whom  he  is  associated,  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  Bill  could  not  fail  to  be  met  by  them  with 
feelings  both  of  disappointment  and  surprise."  After  reading 
this  Report,  and  referring  to  the  private  correspondence  with 
which  he  had  individually  been  honored  by  Lord  Aberdeen, 
after  he  had  ceased  to  correspond  with  the  Committee,  Dr. 
Chalmers  said,  "  I  have  to  state,  with  deep  concern,  that  up 
till  three  weeks  ago  I  was  led  to  believe  that  Lord  Aberdeen's 
Bill  would  be  of  such  a  nature,"  (that  is,  would  confer  an 
unfettered  liberu^n  arbitriu7n.)  "  I  was  led  to  expect  it,  and 
I  think  I  have  right  and  reason  to  be  disappointed."  The 
debate  upon  the  Bill  involved  a  very  thorough  discussion  of 
its  provisions,  and  in  a  division  of  the  House,  by  a  majority 
of  221  to  134,  the  Assembly  resolved,  that  in  its  existing 
form  they  could  not  acquiesce  in  it,  and  that  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  Church  to  use  every  method  to  prevent  its  obtaining 
the  sanction  of  the  Legislature.  A  few  days  after  this  debate, 
in  an  anonymous  communication  to  the  Advertiser  news- 
paper, the  Dean  of  Faculty  accused  Dr.  Chalmers  and  the 
Committee  of  having  made  an  altogether  unfounded  charge 
against  Lord  Aberdeen,  and  denied  most  peremptorily  that 
his  Lordship  had  ever  given  them  reason  to  expect  a  measure 
different  from  that  which  he  had  proposed.  As  the  whole 
of  the  correspondence  had  been  communicated  to  the  Dean, 
and  as  he  pointedly,  and  by  date,  referred  to  certain  private 
letters,  both  from  Dr.  Chalmers  and  from  Lord  Aberdeen, 
which,  as  he  affirmed,  corroborated  his  assertions,  this  commu- 
nication carried  with  it  an  air  both  of  authority  and  weight. 
Dr.  Chalmers  immediately  replied  to  it,  and  after  stating  some 
of  the  grounds  on  which  his  expectations  had  been  grounded, 
and  which  justified  his  expression  of  surprise  and  regret,  he 


174  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840 

added,  "  The  misunderstanding  is  so  very  subtle  and  profound 
that  I  am  not  able  to  explain  it,  yet  I  will  not  let  go  my 
confidence  that  it  is  but  a  misunderstanding,  and  nothing 
more.  Lord  Aberdeen,  though  he  occupies  to  the  full  as  high 
a  place  in  the  aristocracy  of  mind  as  in  the  aristocracy  of 
rank — a  noble  of  nature  as  well  as  birth — might  not  com- 
prehend what  to  him  was  a  matter  so  extra-professional  as 
the  application  which  might  be  made  of  his  proposed  Act  in 
our  Courts  of  Law.  ^  *  =*  *  In  these  circumstances  there  is 
surely  room  enough  for  the  explanation  of  all  errors,  on  the 
principle  that  understandings  are  in  the  wrong,  without  the 
wretched  resource  of  casting  an  imputation  on  the  honor  or 
integrity  of  any  one.  This  I  am  determined  shall  with  me  be 
the  solution  of  last  resort,  and  I  have  not  yet  nearly  come  to  it, 
least  of  all  with  Lord  Aberdeen,  whose  views  I  am  at  pres- 
ent not  able  to  comprehend,  yet  with  undiminished  reverence 
for  the  virtues  of  that  patriotic  and  high-minded  nobleman." 

While  Dr.  Chalmers  was  penning  these  sentences  in  Edin- 
burgh, Lord  Aberdeen  was  addressing  the  House  of  Lords  on 
the  motion  for  the  second  reading  of  his  Bill.  In  doing  so  he 
referred  to  the  Pweport  which,  as  convener  of  the  Non-Intrusion 
Committee,  Dr.  Chalmers  had  laid  before  the  Assembly,  and 
having  quoted  from  it  a  statement  made  by  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell, but  which  Lord  Aberdeen  erroneously  attributed  to  Lord 
Melbourne,  the  following  interlocutor  occurred  : 

The  Earl  of  Aber-DEEN. — "  I  am  sure  that  there  is  no 
good  ground  for  the  statement  of  the  noble  Viscount,  that 
any  measure  of  the  Government  relative  to  the  subject  would 
be  objected  to  by  your  Lordships.  This  is  not  treating  your 
Lordships  in  a  manner  becoming  the  noble  Viscount." 

Vlscount  Melbourne. — "  I  do  not  remember  it.  Does 
the  Pveport  mention  me  ?" 

The  Earl  of  Aberdeen. — "  No,  the  term  is  the  Gov- 
ernment ;  but  my  noble  friend  must  excuse  me  if  I  look  to 
him  as  the  Government.  At  all  events,  I  am  certain  that 
the  Report  refers  to  the  noble  Viscount," 


.£T.  CO.     LORD  ABERDEEN  AND  THE  COMMITTEE.  175 

Viscount  Melbourne.- — "  I  did  not  say  any  thing  of  the 
kind." 

The  Earl  of  Aberdeen. — "  I  will  fairly  tell  the  noble 
Viscount,  that  I  do  not  believe  the  statement  contained  in 
the  Report.  In  the  Report  of  the  communications  which  the 
Committee  have  had  with  me  they  have  been  so  unscrupu- 
lous in  their  statements  that  it  is  probable  they  have  not  dealt 
more  honestly  with  the  noble  Viscount." 

Viscount  Melbourne. — ''  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that,  how- 
ever." 

The  report  of  this  extraordinary  conversation  had  no  sooner 
reached  Edinburgh  than,  in  the  name,  and  as  the  former 
chairman  of  the  Committee,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon  addressed 
a  letter  to  Lord  Aberdeen,  requesting  to  know  whether  he 
had  made  such  an  impeachment  of  their  integrity,  and  if 
so,  upon  what  ground.  The  correctness  of  the  report  was 
not  challenged  by  his  Lordship,  and  in  vindication  of  his 
charge  he  referred  to  that  very  correspondence  which  con- 
tained the  passages  already  presented  to  our  readers,  and 
which  so  fully  warranted  that  statement,  the  honesty  as  well 
as  the  accuracy  of  which  was  called  in  question.  Dr.  Chalmers, 
though  still  a  member,  had  now  relinquished  the  Convener- 
ship  of  the  Committee.  In  alluding  to  this.  Lord  Aberdeen 
spoke  of  Dr.  Chalmers  "  as  a  reverend  gentleman,  a  great 
leader  in  the  Assembly,  who  having  brought  the  Church  into 
a  state  of  jeopardy  and  peril,  had  left  it  to  find  its  way  out 
of  the  difficulty  as  well  as  it  could."  A  few  weeks  afterward, 
a  pamphlet  by  Dr.  Chalmers  appeared,  bearing  the  following 
characteristic  title,  "What  ought  the  Church  and  the  People 
of  Scotland  to  do  now  ?  being  a  Pamphlet  on  the  Principles 
of  the  Church  Question,  with  an  Appendix  on  the  Politics 
and  Personalities  of  the  Church  Question."  In  the  Appendix 
the  following  passages  occur  :  "  For  ourselves,  such  is  the 
strength  of  our  natural  veneration  for  rank  (a  sentiment  that 
may  be  either  of  a  chivalrous  or  a  pusillanimous  character), 
that  we  are  most  unwilling  to  relinquish  the  favorable  opiu- 


176  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840, 

ion  which  we  have  been  led  to  entertain  of  any  person  who 
may  chance  to  inherit  its  honors ;  and  would  rather  wait  the 
most  decisive  evidence  of  ours  being  a  misplaced  and  extrav- 
agant partiality,  ere  we  could  agree  conclusively  to  let  it  go. 
But  over  and  above  this  instinctive,  or,  as  it  may  be  termed 
by  many,  this  blind  affection,  there  are  certain  principles  on 
what  we  hold  to  be  best  for  the  stability  and  good  order  of 
the  commonwealth,  which  strongly  prepossess  our  inclinations 
toward  the  aristocracy  of  the  land.  We  look  in  fact  on  the 
great  families  of  Britain  as  the  supports  or  buttresses  of 
our  national  edifice  ;  and,  just  as  we  love  in  architecture  the 
graceful  minarets,  by  which,  not  these  ornaments  but  these 
lateral  strengths  of  the  building,  are  surmounted — so  do  we 
confess  an  affection  for  the  crowns  and  coronets  which  sit  on 
the  brows  of  our  nobility.  But  greater — if  not  in  the  order 
of  taste — greater,  far  greater  in  the  order  of  worth  and  solid 
importance  than  the  supports  of  our  edifice,  is  the  foundation 
of  our  edifice  ;  and  on  this  principle  a  still  mightier  interest 
than  even  the  character  of  our  grandees,  is  the  character  of 
our  general  population.  The  most  essential  element  of  a  na- 
tion's health  and  safety  is  that  we  shall  be  sound  at  bottom ; 
but  this  is  an  element  which  nothing  tends  more  fearfully  to 
endanger,  than  that  the  Christian  instructors  of  a  land,  the 
officials  charged  with  that  highest  of  all  education,  the  educa- 
tion of  principle — that  they  should  be  brought  down,  whether 
by  their  own  deservings  or  the  injustice  of  others,  in  popular 
estimation.  '  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  but  if  the  salt 
have  lost  its  savor,  wherewith  shall  the  earth  be  salted  V  It  is 
as  a  blow  struck  at  the  corner-stone  when  the  moral  integrity 
of  clergymen  is  assailed;  and  when  not  in  any  secret  or 
obscure  whispering-place,  but  on  the  very  house-top  of  the 
nation,  we  behold,  and  without  a  single  expression  of  remon- 
strance or  regret  from  the  assembled  peerage  of  the  empire, 
one  nobleman  sending  forth  his  wrathful  fulmination  against 
the  honesty  and  truth  of  ministers  of  religion,  and  another 
laughing  it  off  in  his  own  characteristic  way,  with  a  good-na- 


^T.  60.  REPLY  BY  DR.  CHALMERS.  177 

tured  jeer,  as  a  thing  of  naught — we  can  not  but  lament  the 
accident,  by  which  a  question  of  so  grave  a  nature  and  of 
such  portentous  consequences  to  society  as  the  character  of 
its  most  sacred  functionaries,  should  have  come,  even  for  a 
moment,  under  the  treatment  of  such  hands. 

"  I  trust  that  I  may  now  bid  my  final  adieu  to  the  field 
of  authorship  upon  this  question.  Let  me  never  at  least  be 
allured  to  it  in  the  vain  hope,  that  I  shall  be  able  to  silence 
the  voice  of  personal  injustice,  which  I  henceforth  leave  to 
expend  itself  upon  me,  either  in  the  form  of  unhandsome  dis- 
closures or  injurious  criminations  by  adversaries,  for  what- 
ever purpose  may  seem  unto  them  good.  It  is  not  long  since 
I  have  been  made  aware  of  a  hostile  misinterpretation  on 
the  part  of  Lord  Aberdeen,  which  but  a  few  weeks  ago,  I 
should  have  deemed  impossible  to  have  come  from  such  a 
quarter.  He  is  reported  to  have  said  in  the  House  of  Peers, 
that  after  having  led  the  Church  into  her  present  difficulties, 
I  now  leave  her  to  find,  as  best  she  may,  her  own  way  out 
of  them.  He  greatly  overrates  my  influence.  The  Church 
came  into  her  present  difficulties  not  by  my  advice,  but  in 
opposition  to  it — and  that  advice,  given  as  far  back  as  1833, 
I  have  now  reiterated,  as  the  likeliest  method  by  which,  if 
let  alone  from  without,  she  might  still  be  extricated  with 
safety  and  honor.  There  are  necessities  which  compel  my 
retirement  from  all  that  is  distracting  or  laborious  in  the  pub- 
lic business  of  the  Church,  which  I  will  not  now  explain  ; 
and,  in  virtue  of  these,  it  is  more  than  a  twelvemonth  since  I 
entered  upon  measures  that  might  prepare  for  my  resignation, 
by  the  time  of  last  Assembly,  of  all  the  tasks  and  manage- 
ments that  had  been  devolved  upon  me.  But,  in  truth, 
apart  from  these  necessities  which  have  long  decided  me  to 
the  step  of  a  general  retirement,  his  Lordship  might  have 
guessed  at  another  reason  for  the  separation  of  myself  from 
•  the  Non-Intrusion  Committee,  beside  the  one  which  he  is 
said  to  have  proclaimed  in  that  high  assembly,  where  no 
counter-explanation  could  possibly  be  given.      I  can  not  better 


178  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

express  the  true  reason,  than  in  the  following  words  of  a  late 
speech  to  the  General  Assembly,  when  I  told  them  that  I 
could  no  longer  be  a  member  of  the  Committee,  whose  re- 
port T  had  just  read  to  them: — 'The  truth  is,  that  in  this 
harassing  warfare  I  am  able  to  hold  out  no  longer.  Irre- 
spective of  this,  I  should  have  tendered  my  resignation  of 
every  office  I  hold  from  the  Assembly,  which  involves  the 
incessant  labor  of  the  last  six  years.  For  more  than  a 
twelvemonth  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  do  this  in  the  As- 
sembly of  1840,  and  during  that  twelvemonth,  the  resolution 
has  been  strengthened  every  day,  by  the  infinity  of  calls  and 
conflicts  and  tracasseries  innumerable,  to  which  my  twofold 
situation  of  Convener  of  Church  Extension  and  Convener  for 
Non-Intrusion  has  exposed  me  ;  and,  to  crown  and  consum- 
mate all,  there  have  not  only  been  the  fatigues,  but,  within 
these  few  weeks,  the  sore,  bitter,  crushing  disappointment — 
the  blastiiig  of  all  my  fondest  hopes  for  the  good  mid  peace 
of  our  Church,  in  my  correspondence  ivith  public  and  par- 
liamentary men.'' 

"  But  his  Lordship  mistakes,  if  he  thinks  that  there  is  no 
other  field  on  which  we  can  be  of  service  to  the  Church,  save 
that  one  which  he  accuses  me  of  having  deserted  in  cowar- 
dice— when  he  and  his  Conservative  friends,  to  whom  I  look- 
ed as  our  last  and  only  dependence  in  London,  may  be  more 
truly  said  to  have  driven  me  from  it  in  despair.  The  weary 
struggle  of  six  years  that  we  had  with  his  political  opponents 
for  the  extension  of  our  Church,  we  at  length  gave  up  in  ut- 
ter hopelessness  of  any  good  from  them.  And  we  are  like  to 
pass  through  the  same  experience,  with  another  party  in  an- 
other cause.  The  fruitless  higgling  of  the  last  six  months — 
and  in  which  shorter,  all  the  distastes  and  discouragements  and 
annoyances  of  the  longer  period  have  been  fully  concentrated 
— we  now  fling  from  us  as  we  would  a  broken  reed  on  which 
we  unwarily  had  leaned.  Lord  Aberdeen  may  stigmatize 
as  a  desertion  that  relinquishment  which  has  been  forced  upon 
us  by  our  discovery  and   consequent  distrust  of  those  with 


^T.  60.     THE  WHIGS  AND  THE  CONSERVATIVES.  179 

whom  it  had  been  our  habit  to  deal ;  but  he  will  find  that 
both  their  insinuating  flattery  and  their  disappointed  violence 
are  alike  impotent  of  effect,  for  leading  us  either  to  betray 
the  cause  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  into  the  hands  of  her 
once  professing  friends,  or  to  surrender  that  cause  into  the 
hands  of  her  now  declared  enemies. 

"  After  all,  I  now  feel  that  I  owe  an  act  of  justice  to  the 
Whigs.  I  understand  justice  in  the  same  sense  as  equity 
{(Equitas)  ;  and  I  am  now  bound  to  say,  that  if  on  the  ques- 
tion of  Church  Endowments  I  have  been  grievously  disap- 
pointed by  the  one  party — on  the  question  of  Church  Inde- 
pendence I  have  been  as  grievously  disappointed  by  the  other. 
Of  course  I  speak  on  the  basis  of  a  very  limited  induction  : 
but,  as  far  as  the  findings  of  my  own  personal  observation 
are  concerned,  I  should  say  of  the  former,  that  they  seem  to 
have  no  great  value  for  a  Church  Establishment  at  all — and 
of  the  latter,  that  their  great  value  for  a  Church  Establish- 
ment seems  to  be  more  for  it  as  an  engine  of  State  than  as 
an  instrument  of  Christian  usefulness.  The  difference  lies  in 
having  no  principle,  or  in  having  a  principle  that  is  wrong. 
In  either  way  they  are  equally  useless,  and  may  prove  equally 
hurtful  to  the  Church  ;  and  though  the  acknowledgement  I 
now  make  to  the  Whigs  be  a  somewhat  ludicrous  one,  if 
viewed  in  the  character  of  a  peace-offering,  I  am  neverthe- 
less bound  to  declare,  that,  for  aught  like  Church  purposes,  1 
have  found  the  Conservatives  to  be  just  as  bad  as  themselves. 

"It  is  for  the  Church  now  to  renounce  all  dependence 
upon  men ;  and  persevering  in  the  high  walk  of  duty  on 
which  she  has  entered,  to  prosecute  her  own  objects  on  her 
own  principles — leaving  each  party  in  the  State  to  act  as 
they  may." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  CONTRAST  BETWEEN  THE  ENGLISH  AND  SCOTTISH 
REFORMATIONS— THE  FIRST  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY- 
ITS  INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  STATE— CONFLICT  BE- 
TWEEN THE  CHURCH  AND  STATE  IN  SCOTLAND- 
CONDUCT  AND  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  CHURCH— THE 
ACT  OF  1592— THE  REVOLUTION  SETTLEMENT— DR. 
CHALMERS'S  OPINION  AS  TO  THE  TWO  PRINCIPLES 
OF  NONINTRUSION  AND  SPIRITUAL  INDEPENDENCE- 
LETTER  TO  LORD  ABERDEEN  AND  SPEECH  IN  THE 
GENERAL  ASSEMBLY— POSITION  AND  PROCEEDINGS 
OF  THE  MODERATE  PARTY  IN  THE  CHURCH— SPEECH 
OF  SIR  ROBERT  PEEL— REPLY  BY  DR.  CHALMERS. 

"  The  child  is  father  of  the  man." — With  Churches  as 
with  individuals  this  holds  true  ;  and  it  stands  conspicuously 
verified  in  the  histories  of  the  two  Reformed  Churches  of 
England  and  Scotland.  The  English  Church  was  created 
by  a  liat  of  the  monarch.  The  reformed  doctrine  had  but 
little  prevalence  and  power  among  the  people  when  Henry 
VIII.,  by  an  act  of  royal  authority,  abolished  the  Pajial 
jurisdiction,  and  substituted  his  own  in  its  stead.  From 
that  period  till  the  present  time,  the  reigning  monarch  has 
been  the  Head  of  the  English  Church  ;  a  dogma  which 
finds  one  of  its  embodiments  in  the  fact,  that  in  all  matters, 
even  as  to  doctrine  and  discipline,  there  lies  an  appeal  from 
the  Ecclesiastical  to  the  Civil  Courts.  It  was  exactly  the 
reverse  in  Scotland.  It  is  now  nearly  three  hundred  years 
since  the  first  General  Assembly  convened  in  Edinburgh. 
It  met  by  no  summons,  it  received  no  express  sanction  from 
the  State.  The  spread  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  the 
preaching  of  that  Gospel  which  they  contain,  had  so  leav- 
ened the  general  community,  that  in  1560,  by  the  Estates  of 
Parliament,   and   against   the   Sovereign's   will,   the  Papal 


JET.  60.     ENGLISH  AND  SCOTTISH  REFORMATIONS.  181 

jurisdiction  was  abrogated.  But  no  other  was  substituted  in 
its  stead.  At  their  own  instance,  and  having  the  Word  of 
God  as  their  alone  guide  and  warrant,  a  few  clergymen  and 
laymen*  assembled  and  organized  the  Protestant  Church  of 
Scotland.  They  framed  a  creed,  drew  up  a  code  of  dis- 
cipline, and  resolved  that,  as  the  highest  court  of  the  Church 
exercising  supreme  legislative  and  judicial  authority,  they 
should  meet  in  General  Assembly  twice  each  year.  There 
were  not  wanting  those  who  at  first  challenged  the  lawful- 
ness of  these  Assemblies.  At  one  of  their  earliest  meetings, 
Maitland  of  Lethington,  the  Queen's  Secretary,  ventured  to 
express  a  doubt  upon  this  point.  "  Take  from  us,"  said 
Knox  in  answer  "  the  liberty  of  Assemblies,  and  take  from 
us  the  evangel,  for  without  Assemblies  how  shall  good  order 
and  unity  of  doctrine  be  kept  ?"  Seven  years  elapsed  ;  fif- 
teen General  Assemblies  were  held  ;  kirk-sessions  were  in- 
stituted ;  Provincial  Synods  erected ;  ministers  appointed, 
suspended,  deposed  ;  in  a  word,  all  the  highest  functions  of 
ecclesiastical  authority  were  exercised  without  any  authority 
from,  or  any  recognition  by  the  State. f  It  did  finally  inter- 
fere, not  to  create,  however,  but  to  ratify  ;  and  by  Act  of 
of  the  Scottish  Parliament  1567,  "the  ministers  of  the 
blessed  evangel  of  Jesus  Christ  whom  God  of  his  mercy  had 
raised  up  among  us,  and  the  people  of  the  realm  that  profess 
Christ  and  do  partake  of  the  holy  sacraments,"  were  declared 
to  be  "  the  true  and  holy  Kirk  of  Jesus  Christ  within  this 
realm."  One-fourth  only  of  the  livings  were  at  this  time 
in  the  gift  of  lay  patrons,  the  remainder  being  held  by  ec- 
clesiastics.     The  Church  unwillinglyj  consented  that  these 

*  The  first  General  Assembly  consisted  of  forty  members,  of  whom 
six  only  were  clergymen. 

t  The  progress  made  during  these  seven  years  was  extraordinary. 
In  1560  there  were  only  twelve  ministers  of  the  reformed  faith  in  Scot- 
land .  in  1567  there  were  250  ministers,  467  readers,  and  150  exhorters. 

t  In  the  First  Book  of  Discipline,  the  provisions  of  which  were  in 
force  from  16^0  till  1567,  it  is  laid  down  "that  it  appertaineth  to  the 
people  and  to  every  several  congregation  to  elect  their  own  minister." 


182  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

lay  patrons  should  retain  the  right  of  nomination  ;  but  in 
the  statute  ordaining  this,  it  was  specially  provided  that 
"the  examination  and  admission  of  ministers  be  only  in  the 
power  of  the  Kirk,"  and  that  in  case  the  Church  should 
"  refuse  to  receive  and  admit  the  person  presented  by  the 
patron,  it  shall  be .  lawful  to  the  patron  to  appeal  to  the 
superintendent  and  ministers  of  that  province  where  the 
benefice  lies,  and  desire  the  person  presented  to  be  admitted, 
which  if  they  refuse,  to  appeal  to  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  whole  realm,  by  whom  the  case  being  decided,  shall  take 
end,  as  they  decern  and  declare." 

One-third  of  the  ancient  revenue  of  the  Church  was  set 
apart  as  a  fund  out  of  which  stipends  were  to  be  paid  to 
the  reformed  clergymen,  the  remaining  two-thirds  being  ap- 
propriated by  the  Crown  and  the  nobles.  The  Pvoman 
Catholic  prelates,  however,  were  permitted  to  retain  for  life, 
two-thirds  of  the  rents  of  their  bishoprics.  At  the  death 
of  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  in  1571,  the  Earl  of 
Morton  found  a  clergyman  willing  to  take  the  office,  while 
allowing  the  Earl  to  retain  for  his  own  use  the  greater 
portion  of  the  income.  Knox  was  at  this  time  residing  in 
St.  Andrews,  unable  through  the  infirmity  of  declining  years 
to  attend  the  General  Assembly.  He  wrote,  however, 
to  his  brethren,  "  Unfaithful  and  traitors  to  the  flock  shall 
ye  be  before  the  Lord  Jesus,  if  that  with  your  consent, 
directly  or  indirectly,  ye  suffer  unworthy  men  to  be  thrust 
into  the  ministry  of  the  Kirk,  under  what  pretense  that  ever 
it  be.  Remember  the  Judge  before  whom  ye  must  make 
account,  and  resist  that  tyranny  as  ye  would  avoid  hell  fire." 
The  Assembly  responded  to  the  sentiments  of  the  firm  and 
inflexible  reformer.  A  remonstrance  was  written  in  their 
name  by  Erskine  of  Dun,  and  forwarded  to  the  Pwegent  Mar. 
"  There  is,"  says  that  remonstrance,  "  a  spiritual  jurisdiction 
and  power  which  God  has  given  unto  his  Kirk,  and  to  them 
that  bear  office  therein  ;  and  there  is  a  temporal  jurisdiction 
and   power   given   of  God   to   kings    and   civil   magistrates, 


MT.  GO.   STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  CHURCH  AND  STATE.        183 

Both  the  powers  are  of  God,  and  most  agreeing  to  the  forti- 
fying one  of  the  other,  if  they  be  rightly  used.  But  when, 
the  corruption  of  man  enters  in,  confounding  the  offices, 
usurping  to  himself  what  he  pleases,  nothing  regarding  the 
good  order  appointed  of  God,  then  confusion  follows  in  all 
estates.  The  Kirk  of  God  should  fortify  all  lawful  powers 
and  authority  that  pertains  to  the  civil  magistrate,  because 
it  is  the  ordinance  of  God.  But  if  he  pass  the  bounds  of  his 
office,  and  enter  within  the  sanctuary  of  the  Lord,  meddling 
with  such  things  as  appertain  to  the  ministers  of  God's 
Kirk,  then  the  servants  of  God  should  withstand  his  unjust 
enterprise,  for  so  are  they  commanded  of  God." 

Ten  years  after  this  the  fidelity  of  the  Church  was  still 
more  severely  tried.  The  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  died  in 
1581,  and  some  clergyman  was  needed  by  the  Duke  of 
Lennox  to  hold  the  office,  under  bargain  that  the  lion's 
share  of  the  revenue  should  go  to  the  nobleman.  The  name 
and  office  of  diocesan  bishop  had  by  this  time  been  abohshed 
by  the  Church,  yet  Robert  Montgomery,  minister  of  Stirling, 
accepted  the  nomination.  His  Presbytery  prohibited  him 
from  doing  so,  but  as  he  persisted,  they  reported  the  case  to 
the  Synod  of  Lothian.  The  civil  authorities  interfered,  in- 
terdicted the  Synod  from  proceeding,  and  summoned  them 
before  the  Privy  Council.  Their  representatives  appeared, 
and  in  their  name  respectfully  declined  the  judgment  of  such 
a  Court,  as  incompetent  in  such  a  matter.  Montgomery 
was  now  summoned  to  appear  at  the  bar  of  the  General 
Assembly,  indicted  to  meet  at  St.  Andrews  in  April,  1582. 
His  case  had  just  been  called  when  a  messenger-at-arms 
entered  the  House,  and,  in  the  King  and  Council's  name, 
charged  them,  under  "  the  pains  of  rebellion,"  to  desist.  Re- 
solving that  it  was  their  duty  to  proceed,  they  ratified  the 
sentence  of  the  Presbytery,  suspending  Montgomery  from  the 
office  of  the  ministry,  and  found  that  he  had  made  himself 
liable  by  his  conduct  to  the  still  weightier  sentence  of  depo- 
sition and  excommunication.      Alarmed  for  the  moment,  the 


184  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

recreant  minister  appeared  before  them,  confessed  his  error 
and  promised  submission.  His  submission  was  so  far  ac- 
cepted, that  the  sentence  was  delayed  ;  but  the  Presbytery 
of  Edinburgh  was  instructed  and  authorized,  in  case  of  a 
violation  of  his  engagement,  to  proceed  instantly  to  pass  it. 
The  sense  of  immediate  terror  had  no  sooner  passed  away 
than  he  revived  his  claims,  and  in  face  of  all  the  threatenings 
of  the  Court  the  final  sentence  was  promptly  pronounced 
against  him.  The  ministers  of  the  metropolitan  Presbytery 
were  summoned  to  appear  immediately  before  the  Privy 
Council ;  one  of  their  number  was  banished  from  the 
capital,  and  their  sentence  was  declared  null  and  void.  The 
emergency  was  urgent ;  a  special  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly  was  called,  and  a  remonstrance  forwarded  to  the 
King,  in  which  the  following  passage  occurs  : 

"  Your  Majesty,  by  advice  of  some  counselors,  is  taught 
to  take  upon  your  grace  that  spiritual  power  and  authority 
which  properly  belongeth  to  Christ,  as  only  King  and  Head 
of  the  Kirk.  The  ministry  and  execution  thereof  is  only 
given  to  such  as  bear  office  in  the  ecclesiastical  government 
of  the  same;  so  that  in  your  Grace's  person,  some  men  press 
to  erect  a  new  popedom,  as  though  your  Majesty  could  not 
be  full  king  and  head  of  this  commonwealth,  unless,  as  well 
the  spiritual  as  the  temporal  sword  be  put  in  your  hand — 
unless  Christ  be  bereft  of  His  authority,  and  the  two  jurisdic- 
tions confounded  which  God  has  divided,  which  directly 
tends  to  the  wreck  of  all  true  religion." 

Montgomery  and  the  Court  gave  way.  The  struggle  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  State  lasted  some  years  longer, 
till  the  celebrated  statute  of  1592  was  passed,  by  which 
were  abrogated  "  all  acts,  laws,  and  statutes  made  at  any 
time  before  the  day  and  date  hereof  against  the  liberty  of 
the  true  Kirk,  jurisdiction  and  discipline  thereof,  as  the  same 
is  used  and  exercised  ivithin  this  realm'''  This  statute 
was  accepted  and  regarded  at  the  time  as  ratifying  that 
claim  to   an  exclusive  spiritual  jurisdiction  for   which  the 


^T.  60.  THE  REVOLUTION  SETTLEMENT.  185 

<^hurch  had  contended  during  the  thirty  preceding  years — a 
statute  like  that  of  1567,  still  in  force,  but  which,  in  1839, 
was  strangely  quoted  and  founded  on  as  destructive  of  such 
a  claim. 

Our  space  does  not  permit  us  to  complete  this  historic 
sketch.  The  first  thirty  years,  however,  are  a  type  of  all  that 
followed.  The  right  to  a  free  and  uncontrolled  self  government 
^the  liberty  to  order  all  her  doings  according  to  her  own  con- 
science, and  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  Christ,  the  Church  of 
Scotland  still  resolutely  asserted  and  maintained.  For  a  brief 
season  or  two  she  ingloriously  succumbed  and  suffered  the 
invader's  inroads.*  But  from  these  temporary  disgraces  she 
nobly  redeemed  herself    Under  the  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts  f 

*  In  one  of  these  periods  of  defection  a  few  faithful  ministers  had  con- 
vened in  Assembly  at  Aberdeen.  In  the  King's  name,  and  on  pain  of 
rebellion,  they  were  charged  to  dissolve.  They  offered  to  do  so  pro- 
vided his  Majesty's  Commissioner  would  name  a  day  and  place  for  the 
next  meeting.  On  this  being  refused  they  continued  in  Assembly,  for 
which  act  sixteen  were  committed  to  prison,  and  six  were  indicted  on 
the  charge  of  high-treason.  One  of  the  six,  John  Welsh,  the  son-in- 
law  of  Knox,  was  condemned  ;  and  writing  from  his  prison  in  the  Castle 
of  Blackness,  he  says,  "  Who  am  I,  that  He  should  first  have  called 
me,  and  then  constituted  me  a  minister  of  the  glad  tidings  of  the  Gospel 
of  salvation  these  years  past,  and  now,  last  of  all,  to  be  a  sufferer  for 
his  cause  and  kingdom  !  Now,  let  it  be  so  that  I  have  fought  my  fight, 
and  run  my  race,  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of  right- 
eousness, which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  God,  will  give,  not  to  me 
only,  but  to  all  that  love  his  appearing,  and  choose  to  witness  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  King  of  saints,  and  that  his  Church  is  a  free  kingdom, 
yea,  as  free  as  any  kingdom  under  heaven,  not  only  to  convocate,  hold, 
and  keep  her  meetings,  conventions,  and  assemblies,  but  also  to  judge 
all  her  affairs,  in  all  her  meetings  and  conventions,  amongst  her  mem- 
bers and  subjects.  These  two  points — 1.  That  Christ  is  the  Head  of 
the  Church ;  2.  That  she  is  free  in  her  government  from  all  other  juris- 
diction except  His ; — these  two  points,  I  say,  are  the  special  cause 
of  bur  imprisonment,  being  now  convicted  as  traitors  for  maintaining 
them." 

t  The  first  clergyman  who  suffered  under  the  Stuarts  was  Mr. 
James  Guthrie,  and  the  last  Mr.  James  Renwick.  One  of  the  leadmg 
counts  in  Mr.  Guthrie's  indictment  was,  that  he  declined  the  Kmg's 


186  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

four  hundred  of  her  clergymen  voluntarily  resigned  their  liv- 
ings rather  than  acknowledge  the  royal  authority  as  supreme 
vv^ithin  the  house  of  God.  And  true  to  the  same  principles, 
their  scattered  flocks  were  driven  into  exile,  shot  down  in 

judgment  as  incompetent  in  matters  of  doctrine.  In  his  defenses,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  showing  how  warrantable  such  a  declaration  was, 
Mr.  Guthrie  sa_vs,  ''  The  Word  of  God  doth  clearly  hold  forth  that  Jesus 
Christ  hath  a  visible  kingdom  w^hich  He  exercises  in  or  over  His  visible 
Church,  which  is  wiiolly  distinct  from  the  civil  powers  and  governments 
of  the  world,  and  not  depending  upon  nor  subordinate  unto  these  gov- 
ernments in  the  administrations  thereof,  which  are  spiritual,  and  are 
to  be  regulated  not  by  the  laws  of  men,  but  by  His  own  laws,  set  down 
in  His  Word.  *  =*  *  As  for  divine  reason,  the  defender  doth  only  ss^, 
that  if  the  function  of  the  magistrate  be  distinct  from  the  ministerial 
function  in  all  the  causes  thereof,  then  must  needs  the  jurisdictions  and 
exercises  thereof  be  also  distinct  and  not  depending  one  upon  another. 
The  confounding  of  these,  and  the  clashings  and  encroachments  of  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers,  have  been  the  cause  of  much  trouble 
and  confusion  in  the  world,  and  the  preserving  of  them  distinct,  and 
giving  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's,  and  to  Caesar  the  things  that 
are  Caesar's,  is  the  best  foundation  of  order,  union,  and  peace,  both  in 
Church  and  State." 

Mr.  Guthrie's  defenses  were  overruled,  and  he  died  upon  the  scaffold 
at  Edinburgh,  on  the  1st  June,  1661.  "I  bless  the  Lord,"  said  he,  in 
his  last  speech,  "  that  as  I  die  not  as  a  fool,  so  also  that  I  die  not  for 
evil  doing.  The  matters  for  which  I  am  condemned  are  matters  be- 
longing to  my  calling  and  function  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,  such 
as  the  discovery  and  reproving  of  sin,  the  pressing  and  the  holding  fast 
of  the  oath  of  God  in  the  covenant,  and  preserving  and  carrying  on  the 
work  of  religion  and  reformation  according  thereto,  and  denying  to  ac- 
knowledge the  civil  magistrate  as  the  proper  co^npetent  immediate  judge 
in  causes  ecclesiastical." — Wodrciv,  vol.  i.  pp.  184,  185,  193. 

At  his  execution,  on  the  13th  February  1688,  Mr.  James  Renwick 
said,  upon  the  scaffold,  '"I  die  a  Presbyterian  Protestant.  I  adjoin  my 
testimony  to  all  those  truths  which  have  been  sealed  by  blood  on  scaf 
folds,  fields,  and  seas,  for  the  cause  of  Christ.  I  leave  my  testimony 
against  Popery,  Prelacy,  Erastianism,  against  all  profanity,  and  every 
thing  contrary  to  sound  doctrine,  particularly  against  all  usurpations 
and  encroachments  made  upon  Christ's  rights,  the  Prince  of  the  kings 
of  the  earth,  who  alone  must  bear  the  glory  of  ruling  his  own  kingdom 
— the  Church ;  and  particularly  against  the  absolute  power  assumed  by 
this  usurper,  that  belongs  to  no  mortal." — Wodrow^  vol.  iv.  pp.  453, 
454. 


JET.  GO.  THE  REVOLUTION  SETTLEMENT.  187 

the  wild  morass,  or  executed  on  the  scaffold,  till  thousands 
perished.  The  glorious  Revolution  came  at  last.  By  one  of 
William's  earliest  Acts  it  is  declared  that  "  the  first  Act  of 
the  second  Parliament  of  King  Charles  the  Second,  entituled, 
*  Act  asserting  his  Majesty's  supremacy  over  all  persons  and 
in  all  causes  ecclesiastical,'  is  i?iconsiste?it  ivith  the  Church 
Government  now  desired,  and  ought  to  be  abrogated.  There- 
fore their  Majesties,  with  advice  and  consent  of  the  Estates 
of  Parliament,  do  hereby  abrogate,  rescind,  and  annul  the 
said  Act,  and  declare  the  same,  in  the  whole  heads,  articles, 
and  clauses  thereof,  to  be  of  no  force  or  effect  in  all  time 
coming."  Thereafter  the  Act  1592  was  revived,  renewed, 
and  confirmed,  by  which  "  the  sole  and  only  power  and 
jurisdiction  within  the  Church"  was  declared  to  stand  in  the 
Church,  and  in  her  courts,  as  separate  from  and  not  subject 
to  the  supreme  civil  power.  At  the  same  time  the  West- 
minster Confession  of  Faith  was  ratified  and  engrossed  verba- 
tim in  the  statute.  In  the  30th  chapter  of  that  Confession 
it  is  announced  as  a  fundamental  principle,  "  That  the  Lord 
Jesus,  as  King  and  Head  of  his  Church,  hath  therein  appointed 
a  government  in  the  hand  of  Church-officers  distinct  from  the 
civil  magistrate." 

It  is  in  the  light  of  her  bygone  history — in  the  light  of 
her  own  authoritative  documents — in  the  light  of  the  author- 
ship of  the  most  eminent  of  her  ministers — in  the  light  of  the 
doings  and  sufferings  of  her  faithful  members — that  those  stat- 
utes can  alone  be  properly  read  and  understood  which  ratify 
the  Church's  liberty,  and  assert  over  her  the  supreme  and  only 
Headship  of  Christ.  It  should  not  surprise  us,  therefore,  that 
lawyers  of  the  highest  eminence — men  versant  in  all  the  can- 
ons by  which  the  terms  of  ordinary  statute  law  are  interpret- 
ed— should  have  failed  in  interpreting  these  statutes  aright. 
Their  true  interpretation  is  to  be  discovered  in  the  fact,  that 
from  the  beginning  of  her  history,  and  at  no  small  cost  of 
strife  and  suffering  afterward,  the  Church  of  Scotland  held  fasi 
by  the  principle  that  the  Church  is  a  divine  institute,  derivin<> 


188  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

her  existence,  powers,  and  privileges  directly  from  Christ,  hav- 
ing the  rule  of  her  procedure  in  His  Word,  for  the  faithful 
following  of  which  rule,  and  the  preservation  of  her  allegiance 
to  her  great  Head,  she  must  be  free  from  all  foreign  control. 
She  owed  it  to  the  peculiarity  of  her  birth — she  owed  it  to 
the  circumstances  of  her  earlier  years,  that  she  only,  of  all 
the  Churches  of  the  Reformation,  was  called  upon  to  search 
thoroughly  into  the  principles  upon  which  a  pure  connection 
between  the  Church  and  the  State  can  alone  be  established  ; 
and  among  all  the  children  of  the  Preformation  this  was  her 
distinction  and  her  glory,  that,  walking  hand  in  hand  with 
the  secular  authorities,  she  had  kept  herself,  in  principle  at 
least,  if  not  always  in  practice,  pure  and  clean. 

It  was  no  false  alarm  which  visited  the  heart  of  Dr. 
Chalmers  when  at  the  Bar  and  from  the  Bench  he  heard 
the  Church  of  Scotland  pronounced  to  be  a  creature  of  the 
State,  and  the  civil  supremacy  over  her  actings  so  unhesi- 
tatingly and  unlimitedly  affirmed.  That  alarm  was  height- 
ened when,  for  the  discharge  of  a  purely  spiritual  act,  a  Pres- 
bytery was  summoned  to  the  bar  of  the  Civil  Court  and  re- 
buked ;  and  it  received  a  full  confirmation  when  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Word  and  the  administering  of  sacraments  was 
prohibited  in  a  whole  district  of  the  land.  At  an  early  stage 
of  the  conflict  the  paramount  importance  of  the  question  as 
to  the  Church's  spiritual  jurisdiction  revealed  itself  to  his 
eye.  It  was  when  exercised  in  defense  of  the  privileges  of 
the  people,  that  this  jurisdiction  had  been  in  the  first  in- 
stance assailed,  and  the  two  topics  of  Non-Intrusion  and 
spiritual  independence  had  come  thus  to  be  implicated  to- 
gether. He  was  most  anxious  to  distinguish  and  keep 
them  separate,  that  its  proper  place  and  its  own  right  rela- 
tive importance  might  be  assigned  to  each.  In  principle 
he  was  opposed  to  all  violent  settlements,  as  hurtful  to  the 
efficacy  of  the  Christian  ministry,  and  prejudicial  to  the  in- 
terests of  true  religion.  In  no  circumstances,  and  under  no 
force  of  compulsion  would  he  ever  have  taken  part  or  given 


^T.  60.  SPIRITUAL  INDEPENDENCE.  189 

any  sanction  to  such  an  ordination  as  that  of  Mr.  Edwards 
in  the  parish  of  Marnoch  ;  but  he  was  fully  aware,  not- 
withstanding, that  the  ideas  prevalent  in  Scotland  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  pastoral  relationship,  and  as  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  Church  should  establish  it,  were  to  some 
extent  peculiar  to  his  country,  and  that  what  might  be  ruin- 
ous to  the  interests  of  rehgion  there,  might  not  have  the 
same  effect  elsewhere,  and  that  the  obligations,  therefore, 
resting  upon  the  Church  of  Scotland  might  not  rest  equally 
upon  all  other  churches  in  all  other  circumstances.  It  was 
different  with  the  other  principle  brought  now  into  jeopardy. 
In  his  estimate  it  was  a  broad,  a  general,  a  universal  truth, 
free  from  all  accidents  of  place  and  time — a  truth  for  all  ages, 
and  all  countries,  and  all  churches — that  however  placed  to- 
ward, and  however  indebted  to  the  civil  power,  the  Church 
of  Christ,  while  giving  her  services,  should  never  part  with 
her  liberties — while  receiving  State  support,  should  never 
submit  to  State  control,  save  in  the  disposal  of  the  State's 
emoluments.  It  was  the  depth  of  this  conviction  which, 
when  Lord  Aberdeen,  in  a  letter  dated  January,  1840,  re- 
ferred to  the  "  contempt  and  disobedience  of  the  law"  of 
which  the  Church,  as  he  imagined,  had  been  guilty,  led 
Dr.  Chalmers,  in  reply,  to  say — "  I  am  quite  sensible  that 
the  principles  of  our  controversy  are  grievously  misunder- 
stood. The  truth  is,  they  have  lain  dormant  for  a  century 
and  a  half,  because  they  have  never,  during  the  whole  of 
that  period,  been  called  forth  by  any  disturbing  force  into 
exercise  or  manifestation  ;  and  so,  excepting  by  ecclesiastics, 
they  have  been  well-nigh  forgotten.  They  are  not,  how- 
ever, on  that  account  less  deeply  seated  in  our  own  convic- 
tions, or  less  palpably,  as  we  think,  deponed  to  in  the  Word 
of  God.  They  were  once  familiar  even  to  the  lay  mind  of 
almost  the  whole  of  Scotland,  and  we  are  sensible  of  a  daily 
increasing  number,  now  that  public  attention  is  turned  to  the 
question,  who  are  beginning  to  perceive  the  sacredness  of  the 
principle  that  there  are  certain  matters  on  which  a  Christian 


190  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

Church  should  be  left  untouched  to  its  own  power  of  inter- 
nal regulation.  If  there  be  one  assertion  which  I  feel  ray- 
self  warranted  to  make  with  greater  confidence  than  another, 
it  is,  that  we  have  not  rebelled,  and  that  we  have  kept  re- 
ligiously within  the  limits  of  that  ground  on  which  the  civil 
power  ought  to  make  no  invasion.  It  is  my  profound  feel- 
ing that  the  violence  and  illegality  charged  upon  us  are  all 
chargeable  upon  the  Court  of  Session,  and  that  we  have  ac- 
quitted ourselves  with  the  most  exemplary  moderation  in  the 
whole  of  this  affair.  In  strict  ecclesiastical  propriety,  the 
Strathbogie  ministers,  instead  of  being  suspended,  should 
have  been  deposed,  and  I  fear  will  be  deposed  by  next  As- 
sembly in  consequence  of  their  disobedience,  if  not  anticipated 
by  a  final  settlement  of  the  question."  It  was  the  same 
profound  conviction  which  led  him,  in  opening  the  debate  on 
Lord  Aberdeen's  Bill  in  the  General  Assembly,  to  speak  as 
follows  : 

"  Now,  Sir,  looking  on  this  part  of  our  case,  keeping  a 
steadfast  eye  on  the  question  of  our  spiritual  independence,  and 
putting  out  of  view  for  a  moment  the  question  of  Non-In- 
trusion altogether,  there  are  many,  I  trust  very  many,  who 
think  variously  on  the  law  of  patronage  and  its  modifications, 
and  yet  would  harmonize  and  enter  into  one  conjunct  and 
firm  phalanx  for  the  vindication  of  our  Church's  outraged 
privileges  ;  and  if  ever  there  was  a  crisis  in  our  history — 
ever  a  period  of  those  manifold  and  sore  controversies,  among 
which  from  infancy  our  Church  has  been  cradled,  when 
courage  and  consistency  have  been  more  called  for,  it  is  the 
day  on  which  we  have  now  fallen — when  the  poison  of  false 
and  hollow  principle  is  undermining  our  strength  from  within, 
and  thousands  of  our  deadliest  enemies  from  without  are  on 
the  tiptoe  of  high  expectancy  for  a  coming  overthrow.  Sir, 
it  is  a  leading  principle  of  our  Presbyterian  constitution,  that 
there  is  a  distinct  government  in  the  Church,  which  the 
State  of  course  must  approve  ere  it  confers  upon  us  its  own 
temporalities  ;   or,  in  other  words,  that  we  have  as  uncon- 


JET.  60.         DEBATE  ON  LORD  ABERDEEN'S  BILL.  191 

trolled  a  management  of  our  own  proper  affairs  as  if  we  re- 
ceived not  one  farthing  out  of  the  national  treasury  ;  that 
when  in  the  act  of  becoming  an  Establishment,  we,  in  the 
brief  and  emphatic  deliverance  of  my  friend  Mr.  Gray,  '  gave 
them  our  services  but  not  our  liberties,'  getting  at  their  hands 
a  maintenance  for  our  clergy,  and  engaging  in  return  for  the 
Christian  education  of  the  people  ;  a  conjunction,  we  think, 
fruitful  of  innumerable  blessings  both  to  the  Church  and  to 
society,  but  in  which  the  value  given  is  many  hundred-fold 
greater  than  the  value  received.  Still,  if  the  State  be  not 
satisfied  with  the  bargain,  they  can  at  any  time  give  us  up. 
If,  over  and  above  our  services  in  things  spiritual,  they  must 
also  have  our  submission  in  things  spiritual,  in  these  we  have 
another  Master,  to  whom,  and  to  whom  alone,  we  are  re- 
sponsible ;  and  we  utterly  repudiate,  as  we  should  an  accursed 
thing,  the  sacrilegious  bribe  that  would  tempt  us  from  an 
allegiance  to  Him  ;  for  that  in  these  things  He  has  the  sole 
and  undivided  mastery,  is  a  principle  which  lies  at  the  very 
foundation  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  and  on  her  giving  up 
this,  as  by  the  loosening  of  a  corner  or  a  key-stone,  the  whole 
fabric  will  tumble  into  ruins.  The  establishment  of  this,  as 
the  principle  of  our  Church,  is  the  peculiar  glory  of  Scot- 
land, the  fruit  of  a  hard-won  victory,  after  the  struggles  and 
the  persecutions  of  more  than  a  hundred  years.  A  principle 
which  has  cost  us  so  much  we  are  not  now  willing  to  let  go  ; 
and  if  the  State  will  insist  on  our  surrender  of  it,  or  the  for- 
feiture of  our  endowments,  we  are  willing  to  try  the  experi- 
ment, and  to  brave  the  same  cost  over  again.  It  is  a  prin- 
ciple. Sir,  that  we  have  not  forgotten,  though  it  has  been  re- 
nounced by  a  few  declarationists  among  ourselves,  and  though 
it  has  faded  away  from  the  recollections  and  the  feelings  of 
general  society,  like  an  old  charter  which  might  slumber  in 
its  repositories  for  generations,  while  its  articles  remain  un- 
broken, but  which  the  rude  hand  of  violence  will  recall  from 
its  oblivion,  and,  quickening  it  anew  into  vigor  and  vitality, 
will  bring  back,  as  if  by  resurrection,  on  the  face  and  to  the 


192  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

observation  of  the  world.  It  is  even  so  with  the  grand,  the 
fundamental  principle  of  our  Church — its  own  inherent  lib- 
erty in  things  ecclesiastical — familiar  as  household  words, 
Bishop  Burnet  tells  us,  even  to  the  humblest  of  our  peasantry, 
but  which,  suffered  to  lie  quiet  for  a  century  and  a  half,  be- 
cause let  alone,  had  ceased  at  one  time  to  be  spoken  of,  and 
so  fallen  away  from  the  memory,  even  from  the  understand- 
ings, of  men.  From  1688  to  1838 — from  the  time  of  the 
Revolution  settlement  to  the  time  when  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion gave  forth  its  interdict  against  the  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld 
in  the  case  of  Lethendy — no  civil  power  ever  attempted  to 
interfere  with  the  steps  of  our  ecclesiastical  procedure,  or  to 
meddle  with  our  Establishment  in  aught  but  the  temporalities 
which  belong  to  her.  It  was  the  disturbance  given  then 
which  has  aroused  the  Church,  and  will  at  length  arouse 
the  nation,  from  its  dormancy.  It  threw  us  back  on  the  first 
elements  of  a  question,  which,  from  the  days  of  our  great- 
grandfathers, had  been  settled  and  set  by.  When  conjured 
up  again,  it  sounded  like  an  antique  paradox  on  many  an 
ear  ;  but  minds  are  gradually  opening  to  the  truth  and  sacred- 
ness  of  our  great  principle,  and  we  doubt  not  that  the  very 
agitations  of  this  controversial  period  have  flashed  it  more 
vividly  and  convincingly  on  the  understandings  of  men  than 
heretofore.  Our  ark  is  now  in  the  midst  of  conflicting  bil- 
lows, but  so  that  its  flag  is  all  the  more  unfurled  by  the 
storm  which  has  raised  them ;  and  the  inscription  there,  now 
spread  forth  and  expanded  in  the  gale,  is  making  the  motto 
of  our  Establishment  patent  to  all  eyes,  that  '  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  only  Head  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.'  Sir, 
we  have  nailed  this  color  to  the  mast,  and  will  keep  by  it  in 
all  its  fortunes,  whether  of  tempest  or  of  sunshine,  through 
which  the  winds  of  heaven  may  carry  it.  The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  the  only  Head  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  that  is 
the  watchword  of  the  party  with  whom  I  act ;  and  is  there 
none  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  to  reiterate  the  cry? 
Yes,   many,  very  many,  perhaps  all.      And  does  not  this 


■tv 


iET.  60.  POSITION  OF  THE  MODERATES.  193 

justify  the  distinction  of  treatment  that  we  are  now  making 
between  the  two  questions  of  spiritual  independence  and  of 
the  Veto  Law  ?  And  the  only  other  distinction  I  would 
press  in  the  opposite  quarter,  from  which  we  have  now  heard 
a  response  so  cheering,  is  that  which  obtains  between  a  de- 
claratory and  an  effective  proposition.  You  nobly  join  us  in 
the  declaratory  ;  will  you  join  us  in  the  effective  ?  I  have 
the  proud  confidence  that  a  goodly  number  of  you  will ;  and 
furthermore,  that  you  will  assert  by  deeds  as  well  as  words, 
the  great  principle  on  which  we  stand.  We  may  break  into 
a  thousand  differences  on  the  Veto  Law  ;  of  the  sacred  lib- 
erties of  our  Church  there  will  be  no  surrender." 

There  were  strong  grounds  for  this  appeal  to  the  Moderate 
party  in  the  Church.  Between  them  and  their  evangelical 
brethren  there  were  many  differences  on  questions  of  ecclesi- 
astical policy,  but  as  yet  there  had  been  no  difference  as  to 
the  Church's  spiritual  independence.  It  might  be  difficult 
to  convince  politicians — doubly  difficult  to  convince  those 
who,  born  and  educated  in  England,  had  imbibed  the  An- 
glican ideas  as  to  the  relationship  between  Church  and  State ; 
but  could  there  be  any  difficulty  in  convincing  Scottish  cler- 
gymen, acquainted  with  the  past  struggles  and  victories  of 
their  Church,  that  resistance  to  the  recent  interferences  of 
the  Court  of  Session  was  constitutional  and  valid  ?  When 
the  Lethendy  interdict  was  issued  it  was  condemned  by  an  al- 
most unanimous  Commission.  When  the  last  Strathbogie 
interdict  was  issued,  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  without 
a  dissentient  voice,  disapproved  of  it.  The  Moderates  dis- 
liked the  introduction  of  the  popular  element  into  the  Church, 
conceiving  that  it  served  to  vitiate  its  character.  Leaving 
the  majority,  however,  to  fight  their  own  battle  of  Non-In- 
trusion— a  battle  in  which  they  could  give  no  help — it  would 
have  been  consistent  with  all  their  former  principles  and 
practice,  it  would  have  been  a  wise  and  generous  policy  for 
them  to  pursue,  had  they  joined  in  the  conflict  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Church's  spiritual  liberties.      With  a  minority 

VOL.  IV. — I 


194  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 


Banctioning  the  procedure  of  the  Civil  Courts,  and  with  the 
hope  held  out  that  the  majority  would  finally  break  down, 
the  British  Parliament  might  feel  free  to  take  its  own  course. 
But  if  the  Church  had  presented  an  unbroken  front  of  resist- 
ance, her  liberties  had  been  saved.  Even  after  the  Moderate 
party  had  come  to  think  that  the  Civil  Courts  were  in  the 
right,  and  the  Church  was  in  the  wrong,  there  was  one 
weighty  consideration  by  which  their  procedure  might  have 
been  affected.  Let  the  liberty  now  asserted  as  belonging  by 
birthright  to  the  Church  be  conceded  to  her,  their  position 
remained  unchanged  ;  let  it  be  refused,  and  the  evangelical 
majority  must  either  renounce  their  principles  or  withdraw 
from  the  Establishment.  The  Moderates  would  have  de- 
served well  of  their  Church  and  country  if  they  had  with- 
held their  hand  from  helping  to  precipitate  such  a  crisis.  It 
had  been  a  deed  of  highest  patriotism,  if,  to  avert  it,  they  had 
sacrificed  the  immediate  hope  of  regaining  a  lost  ascendency. 
But  they  decided  otherwise. 

The  course  which  they  had  resolved  to  follow  was  suf- 
ficiently indicated  when  the  case  of  the  Strathbogie  ministers 
came  before  the  General  Assembly  of  this  year.  The  first 
step  taken  by  the  Assembly,  in  dealing  with  these  clergy- 
men, was  to  appoint  a  Committee  to  hold  a  private  confer- 
ence with  them.  This  Committee,  while  reporting  in  the 
strongest  terms  as  to  the  kindly  and  Christian  spirit  which 
their  brethren  had  manifested  in  the  course  of  this  confer- 
ence, had  yet  the  painful  duty  to  announce  that  they  would 
neither  confess  to  past  error,  nor  give  assurance  of  future 
submission  to  the  Church's  judicatories.  The  Assembly,  in 
consequence  of  this,  resolved  that  the  sentence  of  suspension 
should  be  continued  ;  that  these  clergymen  should  be  cited 
to  appear  personally  before  the  Commission  in  August ;  that, 
if  they  continued  contumacious,  they  should  then  be  served 
with  a  libel,  with  a  view  to  deposition  ;  but  that  the  Com- 
mission should  proceed  no  farther  than  to  make  the  case 
ready  for  the  decision  of  the  next  General  Assembly.      The 


iET.  60.  THE  MODERATE  ASSOCIATION.  195 

final  sentence  was  deferred  thus  for  a  year,  in  the  course  of 
which  it  was  hoped  that  some  event  might  occur  which 
would  remove  the  necessity  of  passing  it.  In  opposition  to 
the  motion  which  became  the  judgment  of  the  Church,  Dr. 
Cook,  followed  by  all  his  party,  moved,  that  as  the  Commis- 
sion had  exceeded  its  powers,  its  sentence  of  suspension  and 
all  proceedings  connected  therewith,  should  be  held  null  and 
void.  When  the  competency  of  the  Commission  was  affirm- 
ed, he  then  moved  again,  that  as  these  clergymen  had  done 
nothing  that  was  censurable,  the  sentence  should  be  removed, 
and  they  be  at  once  restored  to  the  full  exercise  of  their 
ministry.  It  was  not,  however,  till  their  reasons  of  dissent 
from  the  final  judgment  of  the  Court  were  laid  upon  the  table, 
that  it  was  known  how  far  the  Moderate  party  were  now 
prepared  to  go.  These  reasons  not  only  affirmed  that  the 
conduct  of  the  seven  ministers,  in  taking  their  orders  from 
the  civil,  rather  than  from  the  ecclesiastical  court,  was  "  con- 
formable to  the  clearest  principles  of  reason,  and  the  express 
injunctions  of  Scripture,"  but  that,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
dissentients,  the  sentence  passed  upon  them  was  unconstitu- 
tional, illegal,  and  invahd."  Let  but  one  step  more  be 
taken  ;  let  the  dissentients  act  upon  the  opinion  thus  ex- 
pressed, by  holding  ministerial  communion  with  these  clergy- 
men, and  the  Church  would  have  been  forced  to  deal  with 
them  all  as  she  had  dealt  with  the  seven.  The  bold  measure 
of  forcing  this  alternative  at  once  upon  the  Church  appears 
to  have  been  contemplated.  "  If  no  steps  are  taken,"  said 
Lord  Aberdeen,  on  the  16th  of  June,  in  moving  the  second 
reading  of  his  Bill,  "  for  the  settlement  of  this  question  be- 
fore the  month  of  August  a  great  and  lamentable  schism 
will  take  place  in  the  Church,  for  a  large  body  of  ministers 
will  then  announce  their  intention  not  to  obey  the  orders  of 
the  Assembly."  A  few  days  after  this  information  was 
given  to  the  House  of  Lords,  a  private  circular,  signed  by 
Dr.  Cook  and  others,  was  sent  among  their  friends,  inviting 
them  to  form  an  association,  based  upon  the  reasons  of  dissent 


196  iMEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALiMERS.  1840. 

already  alluded  to,  and  requesting  that  a  general  meeting,  for 
the  purpose  of  maturing  the  plans  of  this  association,  should 
be  held  in  Edinburgh  on  the  morning  of  the  12th  August, 
the  very  day  on  which  the  Commission  was  to  meet.  They 
were  emboldened  to  take  strong  steps,  by  the  strong  support 
of  that  great  party  into  whose  hands  it  was  now  evident  that 
the  ruling  power  of  the  State  was  speedily  to  pass.  More  than 
three-fourths  of  the  evangelical  clergymen  of  the  Establish- 
ment were  at  this  time  Conservatives — the  Conservatism  of 
many  of  them  due  to  the  unfriendly,  or,  as  they  thought,  hostile 
policy  of  the  Whigs  in  relation  to  the  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ments of  the  empire,  and  to  the  strong  assurances  which  they 
were  in  every  way  encouraged  to  cherish,  that  from  their  po- 
litical opponents  they  would  experience  a  steady  and  generous 
friendship.  If  Dr.  Chalmers  was  not  thrown  into  any  close 
connection  with  the  leaders  of  that  party,  his  intercourse 
with  them,  such  as  it  was,  was  fitted  certainly  to  generate 
the  hope  that  the  evangelical  interest,  which  he  represented, 
would  experience  no  hostile  treatment  at  their  hands.  But, 
from  the  time  that  Lord  Aberdeen's  Bill  was  rejected,  the 
political  friendship  of  the  Conservatives  was  withdrawn  from 
his  party  in  the  Church.  Lord  Aberdeen,  to  whom  the 
conduct  of  the  Scotch  Church  question  in  Parliament  was 
committed  by  his  political  associates,  appears  at  first  to  have 
recoiled  into  irritation  and  antipathy.  Even  after  the  ver- 
dict of  the  General  Assembly  had  been  delivered,  he  carried 
the  second  reading  of  his  Bill  by  a  large  majority  in  the 
House  of  Lords  ;  and  when  presenting  a  petition  from  the 
Strathbogie  ministers,  a  few  days  afterward,  he  took  occasion 
to  tell  the  House,  that  "the  fact  was  that  the  General  As- 
sembly was  governed  by  a  few  ambitious  lawyers,  and  he 
had  no  doubt  if  the  measure  to  which  he  alluded  (his  own 
Bill)  were  allowed  to  pass,  that  the  great  body  of  the  clergy 
would  acquiesce  in  its  provisions" — that  is,  that  they  would 
act  otherwise  than  they  had  voted.  And  when,  on  the  1 0th 
July,  he  finally  withdrew  his  Bill,  he  was  at  pains  to  say, 


MT.  60.  SPEECH  OF  SIR  ROBERT  PEEL.  197 

that  it  was  not  because  of  the  objections  taken  to  it  by  the 
General  Assembly,  but  because  of  the  opposition  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, that  he  had  not  pressed  it  further.  He  expressed, 
at  the  same  time,  in  the  strongest  terms,  his  sympathy  with 
the  seven  ministers  of  Strathbogie,  whose  case  he  stated  at 
some  length  to  the  House — their  conduct  in  obeying  the 
Court  of  Session  he  highly  applauded — and  so  severe  was 
his  censure  of  those  who  had  violated  the  interdicts  forbid- 
ding them  to  preach,  that  he  went  even  the  length  of  say- 
ing, that  "  there  were  some  of  the  intruders  that  he  should 
not  object  to  see  imprisoned."  Sir  Robert  Peel,  if  not  so 
severe,  was  scarcely  less  explicit.  On  the  27th  July,  on  a 
vote  for  defraying  the  expense  of  building  a  new  hall  for  the 
General  Assembly,  he  took  the  opportunity  of  giving  the  first 
public  expression  of  his  judgment.  It  was  calm  and  dig- 
nified, but  authoritative  and  dictatorial.  "  He  regretted  that 
the  Church  of  Scotland  had  placed  itself  in  opposition  to  the 
State,"  and  "  had  not  felt  the  pre-eminent  obligation  of  set- 
ting an  example  to  all  the  subjects  of  Her  Majesty  in  Scot- 
land of  paying  implicit  deference  to  the  law."  He  was  ex- 
ceedingly sorry  that  the  Bill  introduced  into  the  House  of 
Lords  was  not  to  receive  the  sanction  of  the  Legislature.  If 
it  had  come  to  that  House  of  Parliament  it  should  have  had 
his  cordial  support.  He  could  conceive  that  bills  might  pass 
the  House  introducing  more  of  the  principle  of  popular  elec- 
tion into  the  choice  of  ministers — he  could  conceive  that  to 
be  possible  ;  but  he  was  quite  certain  that  no  bill  contain- 
ing terms  more  favorable  to  ecclesiastical  authority  would 
ever  pass.  The  spiritual  authority  now  claimed  by  the 
Church  of  Scotland  he  believed  to  be  unjust  and  illegal,  and 
he  would  not  for  the  purpose  of  conciliation  give  his  support 
to  it.  He  wished  to  say  nothing  that  could  at  all  prejudice 
a  conciliatory  settlement  of  this  question  ;  but  the  best  evi- 
dence he  could  offer  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  of  his  regard 
arid  respect  was  to  take  this  opportunity  of  inculcating  upon 
its  authorities  a  giving  up  of  their  personal  feelings  and  a  strict 


198  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

obedience  to  the  law.  This  counsel  was  repeated  in  various 
forms,  and  the  echo  of  it  was  still  ringing  in  his  ears,  when 
Dr.  Chalmers  joined  his  brethren  at  the  August  meeting  of 
the  Commission.  The  rumors  of  an  insubordination  about 
to  break  into  some  wide  display  had  drawn  together  such  a 
number  both  of  members  and  auditors  that  they  had  to  ad- 
journ from  the  Assembly  Hall  to  the  Tron  Church,  and  to 
that  crowded  audience  Dr.  Chalmers  addressed  these  words  : 
'•We  must  stand  out  against  this  series  of  aggressions 
thus  rising  in  magnitude  one  above  the  other,  else  the  most 
sacred  of  the  Church's  territories,  the  very  innermost  recesses 
of  her  sanctuary,  will  lie  open  to  invasion  and  be  trodden 
under  foot.  I  know  the  obloquy  which  will  be  heaped  upon 
us  ;  I  have  heard  the  odious  names  which  are  given  to  this 
resistance,  and  am  prepared  for  them.  If  not  an  impartial 
public,  at  least  an  impartial  posterity  will  judge  aright  be- 
tween us  and  our  adversaries,  and  tell  whether  it  is  we  who 
have  been  the  rebels,  or  they  who  have  been  the  persecutors. 
And  here  I  may  say  one  word  in  reference  to  those  who 
express  the  hope — and  I  observe  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  is 
among  the  number — that  we  shall  give  up  our  personal  feel- 
ings and  submit.  What  these  personal  feelings  are,  he  has 
not  specified,  whether  irritation  or  a  false  sense  of  honor — 
the  pride  of  men  who  have  committed  themselves  and  gone 
too  far  to  retract  without  shame  and  degradation.  Never 
was  an  appeal  made  so  utterly  wide  of  the  object  to  sensibil- 
ities which  have  no  existence,  or  if  they  have,  it  is  in  so 
slight  a  degree  that  they  are  overshadowed  by  principles  of 
such  depth  and  height,  and  length  and  breadth,  as  to  en- 
gross and  occupy  the  whole  man.  These  principles,  whether 
comprehended  or  not  by  our  adversaries,  are  the  only  moving 
forces  that  tell  or  have  told  on  the  proceedings  of  the  General 
Assembly.  The  free  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  in  things 
spiritual — the  Headship  of  Christ — the  authority  of  His 
Bible  as  the  great  statute  book,  not  to  be  lorded  over  by  any 
power  on  earth — a  deference  to  our  own  standards  in  all 


JET.  60.      REPLY  TO  SIR  ROBERT  PEEL.         199 

that  is  ecclesiastical — and  what  is  more,  a  submission  un- 
excepted  and  entire  to  the  civil  law  in  all  that  is  civil ; — 
these  are  our  principles — these,  and  not  personal  feelings,  are 
what  you  ask  us  to  give  up,  by  giving  in  to  those  adversaries 
who  have  put  forth  an  unhallowed  hand  upon  them.  And 
is  there  no  room  for  a  similar  appeal  being  made  to  them  ? 
Have  thet/  no  personal  feelings  in  this  matter — no  feeling  of 
ignominy  in  the  anticipation  of  defeat — no  feeling  of  triumph 
in  the  anticipation  of  victory — no  mortification  of  disap- 
pointed vanity  should  their  own  battle-cry,  '  that  what  firm- 
ness has  done  before  it  will  do  again,'*  be  rolled  back  by  a 
resolute  and  unyielding  Church  on  the  head  of  her  haughty 
persecutors  ?" 

This  sentence,  falling  with  overpowering  effect  upon  the 
audience,  had  scarce  been  uttered,  when  a  member  of  the 
Court  abruptly  and  impetuously  called  Dr.  Chalmers  to 
order.  What  the  rock  is  to  the  rolling  billow  which  breaks 
on  it,  this  interruption  was  to  that  swelling  tide  of  popular 
emotion  which,  rising  high  above  it,  burst  into  a  tumultuous 
expression  of  approbation.  For  a  few  minutes  the  voice  of 
no  speaker  could  be  heard.  With  recovered  breath  and  re- 
animated enthusiasm  .Dr.  Chalmers  continued  his  appeal. 

"  Is  there  no  inward  chagrin  among  Parliamentary  friends 
who  now  mourn  over  their  own  abortive  attempts  at  legisla- 
tion ;  and,  let  me  add,  is  there  no  sense  of  offended  dignity 
among  the  functionaries  of  the  law,  should  it  be  found  that 
law — no  impossible  thing,  surely — has  for  once  in  150  years 
gone  beyond  its  sphere  ?  Which  of  these  two  rival  elements, 
we  ask,  in  all  conscience  and  equity,  ought  to  give  way  ? 
whether  the  feelings  of  men  who,  free  from  all  hazard,  lose 
nothing,  in  whatever  way  the  contest  is  terminated,  or  the 
principles  of  men  who  risk  their  all  for  these  principles,  and 
who  though  many  of  them  now  in  the  winter  of  life,  will, 
rather  than  abandon  them,  brave  the  prospect  of  being 
driven  from  their  comfortable  homes,  and  cast  with  their 
*  The  phrase  used  by  the  Dean  of  Faculty  in  his  pamphlet. 


200  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  184C. 

helpless  and  houseless  families  on  the  wide  world  ?  I  ask, 
is  it  well  for  Sir  Robert,  from  his  elevated  station  and  seat 
of  silken  security,  to  deal  forth  such  a  lesson  to  the  Church 
and  the  people  of  Scotland ;  and  while  he  spares  the  patri- 
cian, the  lordly  feelings,  of  all  in  rank  or  in  office  who  have 
leagued  to  bear  us  down,  to  make  no  allowance  for  the  con- 
sciences of  men  who,  though  humble  in  condition  yet  high  in 
sentiment,  are,  like  their  fathers  before  them,  prepared  to  re- 
nounce all  for  the  integrity  of  that  Church  which  is  at  once 
the  glory  and  the  bulwark  of  our  nation  ?" 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PUBLICATION  OF  DR.  ALISON'S  PAMPHLET  ON  THE  AD- 
MINISTRATION OF  THE  POOR-LAWS  IN  SCOTLAND— 
DR.  CHALMERS'S  EFFORTS  TO  NEUTRALIZE  THE  EF- 
FECTS OF  THIS  PUBLICATION— DISCUSSION  AT  THE 
MEETING  OF  THE  BRITISH  SCIENTIFIC  ASSOCIATION 
HELD  AT  GLASGOW,  IN  SEPTEMBER,  1840— PUBLICA- 
TION  OF  A  VOLUME  ON  "THE  SUFFICIENCY  OF  THE 
PAROCHIAL  SYSTEM  WITHOUT  A  POOR-RATE  FOR  THE 
RIGHT  MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  POOR"— CORRESPON- 
DENCE WITH  MR.  THOMAS  CARLYLE  AND  PROFES- 
SOR DUNCAN— LECTURES  TO  THE  MECHANICS  OF 
GREENOCK  ON  THE  LAWS  AND  PHENOMENA  OF  HEAT. 

Dr.  Chalmers's  attention  was  now  for  a  time  diverted 
from  this  harassing  warfare  of  the  Church  to  a  subject 
which,  at  an  earlier  period,  had  engrossed  his  thoughts. 

That  great  change  in  the  administration  of  the  Scottish 
Poor-Laws  which  took  place  in  1844,  sprung  from  the  pub- 
lication, in  1840,  of  a  pamphlet  by  Dr.  Alison.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  any  similar  production  was  ever  followed 
by  like  speedy,  extensive,  and  permanent  effects.  It  owed 
much  of  its  power  to  the  simple,  manly,  earnest,  and  devoted 
philanthropy  of  its  author.  By  accurate  and  well-digested 
statistical  details,  he  fixed  in  the  public  memory  the  fact 
that  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh  exhibited  a  higher  rate  of 
mortality  that  any  of  the  great  towns  in  England  or  on  the 
Continent.  The  fearful  ravages  of  fever  and  other  epidemics 
he  attributed  to  the  squalor  and  poverty  prevalent  in  those 
wretched  abodes  whose  inmates  were  hurried  in  hundreds  to 
a  premature  grave.  The  extreme  destitution  suffered  in  so 
many  instances  to  exist,  without  any  attempt  to  relieve  it, 
was  faithfully  delineated,  while,  in  a  tone  the  most  fitted  to 
make  it  felt,  the  startling  announcement  was  made,  that  the 

I* 


202  MEiMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

"  higher  ranks  in  Scotland  do  much  less  for  the  relief  of 
poverty,  and  of  sufferings  resulting  from  it,  than  those  of  any 
other  country  in  Europe  which  is  really  well  regulated." 
As  the  only  effective  remedy  for  all  the  evils  which  he  had 
so  patiently  investigated,  and  so  impressively  exposed,  Dr. 
Alison  proposed  that  assessments  for  the  poor  should  he 
levied  uniformly  and  universally  over  the  country  ;  that  the 
amount  raised  in  this  way  should  be  increased  from  £l50,- 
000  to  about  £800,000  annually;  and  that  a  portion  of 
these  funds  should  be  applied  to  the  relief  of  indigence 
arising  from  want  of  employment.  A  general  and  generous, 
though,  in  Dr.  Chalmers's  judgment,  a  hasty  and  thoughtless 
response,  was  given  to  Dr.  Alison's  appeal.  A  demand  was 
made  for  an  investigation,  to  be  conducted  by  public  author- 
ity, with  a  view  to  demonstrate  the  failure  of  the  existing 
system,  and  the  necessity  for  the  proposed  alterations.  A 
vigorous  association  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
out  these  views,  and  in  a  few  years  they  were  embodied  in 
an  act  of  the  Legislature.  In  1834,  the  English  Commis- 
sioners, upon  whose  Report  the  Poor-Law  Amendment  Bill 
was  founded,  had  eulogized  the  "  admirable  practice"  of  the 
Scottish  system,  and  had  pointed  to  Scotland  as  "  that  part 
of  the  United  Kingdom  where  the  local  management  and 
maintenance  of  the  poor  has  been  best  conducted  :"  in  1840, 
Scotchmen  became  enamored  of  the  "  admirable  practice" 
which  prevailed  across  the  Border,  and  allowed  themselves 
to  be  convinced  that  their  country  was  that  part  of  the 
United  Kingdom  in  which  the  management  of  the  poor  was 
worst  conducted.  Dr.  Chalmers  had  labored  long  and  earnestly 
to  give  a  directly  opposite  tendency  to  the  current  of  public 
opinion,  not  without  considerable  success  ;  and  it  was  not  to 
be  expected  that  he  should  witness  such  a  sudden  revulsion 
of  the  public  sentiment  without  an  attempt  to  check  it. 
The  meeting  of  the  "  British  Association"  at  Glasgow,  in 
September,  1840,  afforded  him  an  opportunity  of  bringing 
forward  his  own  views  and  proposals,  in  opposition  to  those 


^T.CO.  LETTER  TO  THOMAS  GARLYLi:. 


203 


of  Dr.  Alison.      It  was  an  open  stage,  on  which  they  mi^ht 
fairly  meet  and  subject  their  differences  to  amicable  discussion 
ISO  lack  of  public  interest  was  manifested.      When  the  day 
arrived  on  which  the  topic  was  to  be  discussed,  the  room  in 
which  the  Statistical  section  of  the  Association  ordinarily 
assembled  was  found  too  small,  and  an  adjournment  took 
place  to  an  adjoining  church.      Nothing  new,  however,  was 
added  to  what  had  already  been  brought  before  the  public  ■ 
and  the  discussion  terminated  without  any  effective  check 
being  put  upon  the  Edinburgh  movement.      Unsatisfied  with 
the  result,  Dr.  Chalmers  resolved  to  make  a  final  effort  to 
set  forth  the  sufficiency  of  the  parochial  system  without  a 
poor-rate  for  the  right  management  of  the  poor.      This  was 
done,  in  the  first  instance,  in  a  series  of  occasional  lectures, 
delivered  to  the   students   of  Theology,   during  the  session 
1«40-41  ;  and  which  soon  after  their  delivery  were  embod- 
ied in  a  publication,  forming  the  twenty-first  volume  of  his 
works.      Desirous  to   render   this    volume    a   complete    and 
compendious  exposition  of  the  parochial  system  as  the  only 
effective  remedy  for  pauperism,  he  brought  together  in  the 
Appendix  all  those  extracts  from  his  former  writings  which 
bore  most  effectively  on  the  subject.      Dr.  Chalmers  sent  a 
copy  of  this  work  to  upwards  of  a  hundred   -  public  and 
parliamentary  men,"  accompanying  each  copy  with  a  letter 
from  himself      From  the  large  bundle  of  these  letters  and 
their  answers  we  select  a  single  specimen. 

"  BuR-VTiSLAXD,  September  29th,  1841. 

^  "  My  dear  Sir — My  immediate  object  in  writing  to  you 
is  to  announce  the  liberty  I  have  taken  in  sending  you  a 
copy  of  the  work  I  have  published  the  other  day  on  Pauper- 
ism. I  had  read  your  « Chartism'  with  the  greatest  interest, 
and  have  endeavored,  however  feebly,  to  express  my  sense 
of  its  merits.  My  chief  anxiety  is  for  the  insertion  of  a  per- 
missive clause  in  the  new  Poor-Law  Bill  which  might  em- 
nower  oarishes   to  commence  the  retracing  process  to  the 


204  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1640. 

better  order  of  things  without  being  fettered  by  the  general 
provisions  of  the  Bill.  Could  I  obtain  the  concurrence  of 
yourself  and  other  literary  and  influential  men  of  London 
in  this  view,  it  might  go  far  in  securing  the  object  which 
I  have  had  at  heart,  and  for  which  I  have  now  labored 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. — I  am,  yours  most  truly, 

"  To  Thomas  Cavlyle,  Esq."  "  ThomAS  ChaLMERS. 

"5  Cheyne  Row,  Chelsea,  London,  Oclober  11  th,  1841. 

"  My  deaPw  Sir — The  book  you  have  honored  me  by  send- 
ing, and  the  letter  along  with  it,  arrived  here  two  days  ago. 
Allow  me  to  return  many  kind  thanks  for  this  attention.  I 
am  glad  and  proud  to  be  remembered  by  one  who  is  always 
memorable  to  me,  and  memorable  to  all  the  world,  whether 
they  have  seen  or  have  not  seen  him. 

"  A  wholesome,  grateful  air  of  hope,  brotherly  kindness, 
cheerful  sagacity,  salutes  me  from  this  book  as  I  eagerly  glance 
over  it :  to  read  it  with  care,  as  I  purpose  shortly  to  do,  will 
bo  no  task  for  me,  but  a  pleasure.  One  is  sure  beforehand  of 
finding  much,  very  much,  that  one  must  at  once  and  zealously 
assent  to  ;  and  slower  assent,  doubt,  examination, — nay,  ul- 
timate dissent  itself  (turning  only  on  the  application  and  de- 
tails,) can  but  render  a  beautiful  deeper  basis  of  agreement 
more  visible.  It  seems  to  me  a  great  truth,  this  fundamental 
principle  of  yours,  which  I  trace  as  the  origin  of  all  these 
hopes,  endeavors,  and  convictions  in  regard  to  Pauperism, 
that  human  things  can  not  stand  on  selfishness,  mechanical 
utilities,  economics,  and  law-courts  ;  that  if  there  be  not  a 
rehgious  element  in  the  relations  of  men,  such  relations  are 
miserable  and  doomed  to  ruin.  A  poor-law  can  be  no  lasting 
remedy ;  the  poor  and  the  rich,  when  once  the  naked  parts  of 
their  condition  come  into  collision,  can  not  long  live  together 
upon  a  poor-law  I  Solely  as  a  sad  transitionary  palliative 
against  still  fiercer  miseries  and  in^upportabilities  can  it  pre- 
tend to  recommend  itself,  till  something  better  be  vouchsafed 
us,  with  true  healing  under  its  wings  I 


^T.  60.  LETTER  FROM  THOMAS  CARLYLE.  205 

"  Alas !  the  poor  of  this  country  seem  to  me,  in  these  years, 
to  be  fast  becoming  the  miserablest  of  all  sorts  of  men.  Black 
slaves  in  South  Carolina,  I  do  believe,  deserve  pity  enough; 
but  the  Black  is  at  least  not  stranded,  cast  ashore,  from  the 
stream  of  human  interests,  and  left  to  perish  there  :  he  is  con- 
nected with  human  interests,  belongs  to  those  above  him,  if 
only  as  a  slave.  Blacks  too,  I  suppose,  are  cased  in  a  benefi- 
cent wrappage  of  stupidity  and  insensibility  :  one  pallid  Paisley 
weaver,  with  the  sight  of  his  famishing  children  round  him, 
with  the  memory  of  his  decent  independent  father  before  him, 
has  probably  more  wretchedness  in  his  single  heart  than  a 
hundred  Blacks.  Did  you  observe  the  late  trial  at  Stockport, 
in  Cheshire,  of  a  human  father  and  human  mother,  for  poison- 
ing three  of  their  children,  to  gain  successively  some  £3.  8s. 
from  a  Burial  Society  for  each  of  them  I  A  barrister  of  my 
acquaintance,  who  goes  that  circuit,  informs  me  positively  that 
the  official  people  durst  not  go  farther  into  this  business  ;  that 
this  case  was  by  no  means  a  solitary  one  there ;  that,  on  the 
whole,  they  thought  it  good  to  close  up  the  matter  swiftly  again 
from  the  light  of  day,  and  investigate  it  no  deeper.  '  The 
hands  of  the  pitiful  women  have  sodden  their  own  children !' 
Such  a  state  of  matters  can  not  subsist  under  the  firmament 
of  Heaven  :  such  a  state  of  matters  will  remedy  itself,  as  God 
lives — remedy  itself,  if  not  by  mild  means,  then  by  fierce  and 
fiercest  I 

"  That  you,  with  your  generous  hopeful  heart,  believe  there 
may  still  exist  in  our  actual  Churches  enough  of  divine  fire  to 
awaken  the  supine  rich  and  the  degraded  poor,  and  act  victo- 
riously against  such  a  mass  of  pressing  and  ever-accumulating 
evils — alas  !  what  worse  could  be  said  of  this  by  the  bitterest 
opponent  of  it,  than  that  it  is  a  noble  hoping  against  hope, 
a  noble  strenuous  determination  to  gather  from  the  dry  de- 
ciduous tree  what  the  green  alone  could  yield  ?  Surely,  for 
those  that  have  still  such  a  faith,  I  will  vote  that  they  should 
have  all  possible  room  to  try  it  in.  With  a  Chalmers  in  every 
British  parish,  much  might  be  possible  !   But,  alas  I  what  as- 


206  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 


surance  is  there  that  in  any  one  British  parish  there  will  ever 
be  another  ? 

"  But  enough  of  this.  Go  as  it  may,  your  labors  in  this 
matter  are  not  lost — no  jot  of  them  is  lost.  Nay,  in  one  shape 
or  another,  as  I  believe,  the  thing  that  you  advocate  must 
verily  realize  itself  in  this  earth — across  what  famines,  poor- 
laws,  convulsions,  and  embroiled  strugglings,  is  not  known 
to  man.  My  prayer  is,  that  a  voice  so  humane,  so  true  and 
wise,  may  long  be  heard  in  this  debate,  and  attentively  laid 
to  heart  on  all  sides. 

"With  many  kind  wishes  for  you  and  yours,  with  lasting 
esteem  and  regard,  I  remain,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  most  sin- 
cerely, Thomas  Carlyle." 

Neither,  however,  did  the  publication  of  Dr.  Chalmers's 
volume  avail  to  arrest  the  recent  Scottish  movement.  Public 
sympathy  had  been  fairly  roused,  and  when  once  roused  it  is 
impatient  of  inaction.  Two  remedies  were  presented  to  it — 
the  moral  and  the  pecuniary.  The  one,  slow  in  operation, 
and  relying  upon  influences  the  efficacy  of  which  men  are 
not  ready  to  appreciate  ;  the  other  offering  an  immediate, 
and,  as  it  was  affirmed,  a  satisfactory  issue.  The  one  was 
seized  on  which  gave  the  quickest  promise  of  success.  With- 
out entering  upon  any  estimate  of  their  comparative  merits, 
we  may  refer  simply  to  the  fact,  that  at  this  period  (1840) 
there  were  643  non-assessed,  and  236  assessed  parishes  in  Scot- 
land ;  the  non-assessed  containing  a  population  of  1 ,178,280, 
the  assessed  a  population  of  1,137,646  ;  the  annual  expen- 
diture being,  in  the  non-assessed,  £48,769,  5s.  4d.,  in  the 
assessed,  £91,736,  16s.  ;  the  number  of  paupers  relative  to 
the  whole  population  being  almost  exactly  the  same  in  the 
two  classes  of  parishes.  Had  the  destitution  of  which  Dr. 
Alison  complained  been  due  to  the  insufficient  allowances 
afforded  under  the  Scottish  Poor-Law,  the  smaller  the  allow- 
ance the  greater  should  have  been  the  destitution.  But  ii. 
was  precisely  the  reverse.    Upon  the  same  number  of  paupers 


MT.  60.  LETTER  TO  MR.  DUNCAN.  207 


twice  as  much  was  expended  in  the  assessed  as  in  the  non 
assessed  parishes,  and  yet  the  destitution  in  the  former  was 
incalculably  greater.  It  was,  in  fact,  from  the  assessed 
parishes  that  almost  all  Dr.  Alison's  instances  were  drawn. 
Should  not  the  fair  conclusion  from  these  facts  be,  that  the 
size  of  the  parish  had  more  to  do  with  the  destitution  than 
the  amount  of  the  assessment  ?  In  two  hundred  assessed,  there 
were  as  many  people  as  in  600  unassessed  ;  and  even  that 
general  average  gave  no  correct  idea  of  the  overgrowth  of 
population  in  the  parishes  where  the  deepest  destitution  was 
found.  Had  the  Scottish  ecclesiastical  apparatus  been  but 
sufficiently  extended,  by  opening  up  a  thousand  channels  for 
the  benevolence  of  the  rich  flowing  in  upon  the  necessities 
of  the  poor,  it  would  have  done  as  much  at  least  as  larger 
assessments  have  yet  done,  while  rendering  a  service  at  the 
same  time  in  the  way  of  prevention  which  the  rival  system 
pretends  not  to  furnish.  Dr.  Chalmers  asked  only  £10,000 
a  year,  and  offered  in  return  the  gratuitous  services  of  200 
clergymen  and  1200  laymen  to  aid  in  the  management  of  the 
poor.  Had  £50,000  been  given  he  could  have  doubled  the 
agency  which  the  whole  Establishment  supplied.  Every  large 
and  every  over-populous  parish  could  have  been  broken  down 
into  small  districts,  and  putting  aside  all  the  higher  blessings 
conveyed  by  the  ministrations  of  the  Gospel  of  peace  to  the 
rude  and  godless  masses,  there  would  have  been  less  destitu- 
tion than  now  exists  (for  destitution  to  some  extent,  the  des- 
titution springing  from  reckless  extravagance  and  vice,  will 
exist  under  any  system)  ;  and  yet  Scotland  pays  now  to  sup- 
port her  paupers  upwards  of  £500,000  per  annum. 

Professor  Duncan  of  St.  Andrews,  to  whom  Dr.  Chalmers 
had  sent  a  copy  of  his  volume  on  the  Parochial  Economy, 
suggested  the  objection  that  the  system  pursued  in  Glasgow 
had  not  been  imitated  elsewhere,  and  invited  him  to  write  a 
brief  explanation  on  this  point.  With  that  playful  freedom 
used  always  in  addressing  Mr.  Duncan,  Dr.  Chalmers  writes  : 


208  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 


"  Edinburgh,  October  27th,  1841. 
"My  dear  Sir — I  am  much  disappointed  with  your  letter. 
I  write  not  in  jest,  but  in  sad  and  solemn  earnest.*  You 
grounded  an  objection  to  my  system  on  the  fact  of  its  not 
being  followed  by  others,  which  is  to  say,  that  after  being 
satisfied  with  the  scheme,  when  brought  to  the  standard  of 
reason  and  experience,  as  you  profess  in  the  present  instance 
to  have  done,  you  will  then  refer  to  another  standard — that 
is,  the  opinion  of  men  blind  and  prejudiced  ;  or,  in  other 
words,  after  it  has  made  full  proof  of  its  own  absolute  sound- 
ness, it  must  be  rejected  because  it  happens  to  be  surrounded 
by  a  number  of  dunderheads.  *  *  * 

*  "  Sabbath,  December  12th,  1841. — The  passage  respecting  Babel 
should  not  be  without  an  humble  and  wholesome  effect  upon  my  spirit. 
I  have  been  set  en  the  erection  of  my  Babel — on  the  establishment 
of  at  least  two  great  objects,  which,  however  right  in  themselves, 
become  the  mere  idols  of  a  fond  and  proud  imagination,  in  as  far  as 
they  are  not  prosecuted  with  a  feeling  of  dependence  upon  God  and  a 
supreme  desire  after  his  glory.  These  two  objects  are  the  deliverance 
of  our  empire  from  pauperism  and  the  establishment  of  an  adequate 
m-achinery  for  the  Christian  and  general  instruction  of  our  whole  popu- 
lation. I  am  sure  that  in  the  advancement  of  these  I  have  not  taken 
God  enough  along  with  me,  and  trusted  more  to  my  own  arguments 
and  combinations  among  my  fellows  than  to  prayers.  There  has  been 
no  confounding  of  tongues  to  prevent  a  common  understanding,  so  in- 
dispensable to  that  co-operation  without  which  there  can  be  no  success, 
but  without  this  miracle  my  views  have  been  marvelously  impeded 
by  a  diversity  of  opinions,  as  great  as  if  it  had  been  brought  on  by  a 
diversity  of  language.  The  barriers  in  the  way  of  access  to  other 
men's  minds  have  been  as  obstinate  and  unyielding  as  if  I  had  spoken 
to  them  in  foreign  speech  ;  and  though  I  can  not  resign  my  convic- 
tions, I  must  now — and  surely  it  is  good  to  be  so  taught — I  must  now, 
under  the  experinjental  sense  of  my  own  helplessness,  acknowledge, 
with  all  humility,  yet  with  hope  in  the  efficacy  of  a  blessing  from  on 
high  still  in  reserve  for  the  day  of  God's  own  appointed  time,  that 
except  'the  Lord  build  the  house  the  builders  build  in  vain.'  In  thine 
own  good  time.  Almighty  Father,  regenerate  this  earth,  and  gather 
its  people  into  one  happy  harmonious  family." — See  Dr.  Chalmers's 
HorcB  SabbaticcB,  vol.  ii.  pp.  17,  18. 


JET.  60.        LECTURES  AT  GREENOCK.  209 

"  I  have  met  with  nothing  that  has  made  me  so  heartless 
and  despairing  since  I  read  '  Alison  on  Population.'  If  he, 
a  literary  man,  on  the  spot,  with  the  thing  before  his  eyes, 
and  you,  a  literary  man  at  a  distance,  with  the  thing  set  in 
true  description  before  you,  can  still  shut  your  eyes,  not  to 
the  reasons  but  to  the  facts  of  the  case — pray,  where  is  my 
encouragement  to  writing  any  more  about  it,  or  for  compos- 
ing that  address  which  you,  with  such  glaring  incongruity, 
recommend  to  me  ?  I  will  write  no  more,  and  have  had 
enough  of  vexation  and  annoyance  in  this  weary  struggle  of 
a  quarter  of  a  centary  to  make  me  cease  from  men,  and 
betake  myself  to  some  of  those  purer  and  higher  regions  of 
thought  where  the  provocations  of  all  further  controversy 
with  hasty  and  superficial  thinkers  will  not  reach  me.  I 
have  no  heart  to  speak  and  write  the  same  things  a  thou- 
sand and  one  times.  O  that  is  wearisome,  wearisome,  weari- 
some I  I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  your  dejected  and  disconsolate 
friend, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

While  at  Glasgow  during  the  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  in  September,  1840,  Dr.  Chalmers  had  the 
privilege  of  being  present  and  taking  a  prominent  part  at  a 
dinner  given  by  the  friends  of  the  Church  to  the  Marquess 
of  Breadalbane,  the  only  Scottish  Peer  true  from  first  to  last, 
in  sunshine  and  in  storm,  within  and  without  the  Establish- 
ment, to  the  principles  of  the  Scottish  Church.  There  was 
another  engagement  of  old  date  which  Dr.  Chalmers  took 
the  opportunity  of  his  stay  in  the  west  of  Scotland  to  liquid- 
ate. The  reader  may  remember,  that  when  on  his  Church 
Extension  tour  in  the  autumn  of  1838,  he  had  visited 
Greenock.  He  was  asked  at  that  time  by  the  president  and 
managers  of  the  Mechanics'  Institute  to  deliver  a  lecture  on 
education.  He  was  so  gratified  by  the  request  that  he 
wrote  the  following  reply  : 


210  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  J840 

"  GouRocK,  September  8,  1838. 

"  Dear  Sir — It  is  with  very  great  regret  that  I  feel  my- 
self compelled  by  circumstances  to  decline  for  the  present 
the  request  by  which  you  have  honored  me.  You  do  me  no 
more  than  justice  when  you  count  on  the  interest  which  1 
feel  in  every  thing  connected  with  the  improvement  and  com- 
fort of  our  working-classes  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
weight  and  variety  of  engagements,  which  will  occupy  me, 
I  fear,  for  many  months  to  come,  I  should  have  instantly  be- 
taken myself  to  the  preparation,  and  that  with  a  view  to  the 
delivery  of  such  a  lecture  as  you  have  done  me  the  honor  to 
propose. 

"  I  am  the  more  gratified  by  your  application  for  a  public 
address  on  the  subject  of  education,  that  I  flatter  myself  you 
have  made  it  in  the  knowledge,  or  at  least  with  a  pretty 
confident  belief  of  my  principles  on  this  subject.  The  truth 
is,  that  I  look  upon  no  system  of  education  as  available  for 
the  wellbeing  either  of  individuals  or  of  society  at  large  which 
is  not  based  upon  religion,  and  I  deprecate  the  attempts  which 
are  now  making  to  dissever  the  Christianity  from  the  scholar- 
ship of  our  people  ;  so  that  while  I  rejoice  in  observing  that 
the  moral  improvement  of  those  who  attend  it  is  one  great 
object  of  your  Institution,  I  do  so  consistently  with  my  firm 
persuasion  that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  most  effi- 
cient and  powerful  of  all  moralizers. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  let  this  principle  be  conceded  to 
me,  and  let  our  primary  or  parish  schools  be  protected  and 
placed  beyond  the  reach  of  the  infidel  or  semi-infidel  spirit  of 
the  times,  and  nothing  would  delight  me  more  than  the  mul- 
tiplication and  prosperity  of  well-conducted  Mechanics'  Insti- 
tutes all  over  the  land.  I  have  no  sympathy  whatever  with 
those  who  would  grudge  our  workmen  and  our  common  peo- 
ple the  very  highest  scientific  acquisitions  which  their  taste, 
or  their  time,  or  their  inclinations  would  lead  them  to  realize  ; 
for  next  to  the  salvation  of  their  souls,  I  certainly  say  that 
the  object  of  my  fondest  aspirations  is  the  moral  and  intellec- 


MT.  60.        LECTURES  AT  GREENOCK.  211 


tual,  and,  as  a  sure  consequence  of  this,  the  economical  ad- 
vancement of  the  working-classes,  the  one  object  which  of 
all  others  in  the  wide  range  of  political  speculation,  is  the 
one  which  should  be  dearest  to  the  heart  of  every  philanthro- 
pist and  every  true  patriot. 

"  Such  being  my  views,  you  will  understand  the  cordial 
interest  I  feel  in  the  subject  of  your  communication.  I  dare 
not  undertake  any  additional  extra  work  during  the  present, 
or  even  the  whole  of  next  summer  ;  but  if  beyond  these  pe- 
riods I  am  spared,  and  in  circumstances  for  entering  on  such 
a  walk  of  exertion,  I  hereby  promise  that  I  shall  make  a 
commencement  with  one,  and  should  they  allow  me,  I  would, 
if  able,  like  it  better  with  two,  three,  or  more  lectures  to  the 
Mechanics  of  Greenock. 

"  With  my  earnest  prayers  to  the  Giver  of  all  blessings 
for  the  best  and  highest  interests  both  of  themselves  and  of 
their  families,  I  entreat  you  to  believe  me,  dear  Sir,  yours 
most  respectfully  and  sincerely,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

The  promise  made  in  this  letter  was  never  forgotten,  and 
on  resolving  to  attend  the  British  Association,  he  resolved  at 
the  same  time  to  fulfill  it.  In  preparation  for  this,  after  the  bus- 
tle of  the  General  Assembly  of  1840  was  over,  and  he  had 
returned  to  Burntisland,  he  reverted  to  the  studies  of  his 
youth,  supplied  himself  with  a  small  chemical  apparatus,  and 
to  his  own  family  and  a  few  friends  gave  an  evening  series 
of  familiar  lectures  on  chemistry.  Unsatisfied,  however, 
with  his  own  capabiUties  to  do  full  justice  to  the  subject,  he 
asked  Dr.  Anderson,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  St. 
Andrews,  to  accompany  him  to  Greenock.  An  unfortunate 
circumstance  referred  to  in  the  following  letter,  had  nearly 
disarranged  all  when  on  the  eve  of  execution  : — 

"  Glasgow,  113  N.  Montrose  Street, 
Sept.  22,  1840. 

"  Dear  Sir — You  are  aware  of  the  invitation  given  me 
two  years  ago  by  the  Mechanics  of  Greenock,  and  of  the 


212  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 


promise  made  by  myself  that  I  should  deliver  in  their  hear- 
ing a  lecture  on  education. 

"  I  have  never  lost  sight  of  this  engagement.  I  have  cor- 
responded on  the  subject  with  your  predecessor  in  office  ;  and 
my  communications  latterly  have  been  more  frequent  as  the 
time  drew  near  for  carrying  the  engagement  into  effect.  It 
was  at  length  settled  that  I  should  give  my  lecture  on  the 
evening  of  Monday  the  28th,  and  that  it  should  be  followed 
up  by  a  brief  lectureship  for  some  subsequent  nights  on  the 
laws  and  phenomena  of  heat,  as  affording  a  specimen  of  one 
branch  of  education,  at  least — the  education  of  science.  For 
the  better  execution  of  this  additional  and  extended  part  of 
the  scheme,  I  have  procured  the  invaluable  assistance  of  my 
friend  Dr.  Anderson,  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  the 
University  of  St.  Andrews,  who  is  now  in  Glasgow,  and  has 
brought  with  him  an  apparatus,  part  of  it  obtained  from  En- 
gland, for  the  purpose  of  elucidating  some  of  the  most  recent 
discoveries.  In  short,  all  M'as  in  a  state  of  forwardness  for 
the  execution  of  our  purposes,  and  we  fixed  on  Saturday  last 
for  an  interview  with  two  of  your  own  number,  that  we 
might  arrange  the  details. 

"  Meanwhile,  on  the  Friday  preceding — that  is,  on  the 
18th  of  this  month,  or  four  days  ago — we  were  informed  for 
the  first  time  of  another  arrangement  by  a  hand-bill  from 
Greenock,  which  announces  the  opening  of  your  Mechanics' 
Institution  on  Monday  the  21st,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
three  following  gentlemen,  who  are  to  address  the  meeting  on 
subjects  connected  with  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  and  the 
improvement  of  mankind,  viz.,  James  Simpson,  Esq.,  advo- 
cate, George  Combe,  Esq.,  and  the  Rev.  Patrick  Brewster; 
and  all  this  previous  only  by  a  few  days  to  my  own  lecture- 
ship, and  which  you  have  now  been  looking  forward  to  for 
two  years,  on  the  subject  of  education. 

"  I  will  not  enter  on  the  consideration  here  of  the  princi- 
ples of  any  of  these  gentlemen,  though  I  have  been  told  by 
others  of  a  discrepancy  so  wide  and  palpable  between  their 


MT.  60.        LECTURES  AT  GREENOCK.  213 


views  and  my  own,  that  the  proposal  of  such  an  opening  for 
your  Institution,  when  looked  to  in  all  its  circumstances,  might 
be  regarded  by  some  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  personal  and 
practical  insult  to  myself  I  will  not  entertain  this  feeling. 
Your  own  explanations  of  Saturday  have  led  me  to  dismiss 
any  idea  of  this  kind  from  my  thoughts.  I  will  say  further, 
that  no  provocation  could  ever  have  made  me  insensible  to 
the  obligation  of  my  own  promise.  I  feel  it  due  to  myself, 
provided  the  explanations  I  now  give  are  previously  acquies- 
ced in  by  the  Mechanics,  and  laid  before  the  public  of  your 
town,  to  do  all  I  have  undertaken  to  do  ;  and  still  more  do 
I  feel  it  due  to  the  sacred  cause  of  a  Christian  and  Bible  ed- 
ucation not  to  retire  from  the  arena  of  its  proposed  advocacy, 
even  though  the  most  inveterate  opponents  of  this  cause,  un- 
known to  myself,  and  long  subsequent  to  the  task  having  been 
put  into  my  hands,  should  have  been  invited  to  enter  the  field 
before  me. 

"  It  has  now  become  indispensable  that  I  and  the  Mechan- 
ics, as  well  as  the  general  community  of  Greenock,  should 
understand  each  other.  The  object  of  my  appearance  among 
you  will  be  to  protest  against  any  system  which  would  disso- 
ciate religion  from  scholarship,  and  to  offer  in  my  prelimin- 
ary lecture  the  proofs  and  considerations  on  which  I  hold  that, 
from  the  first  dawnings  of  a  conscience  and  understanding  in 
children,  they  ought  to  be  plied  under  the  roof  of  their  parents 
with  the  lessons  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  ought 
to  be  presented  with  the  same  lessons  not  only  at  church  upon 
the  Sundays,  but  in  scriptural  schools  throughout  the  week. 
And  though  in  the  subsequent  lectures  to  be  given  conjointly 
by  Dr.  Anderson  and  myself  the  time  will  be  chiefly  taken 
up  with  the  demonstrations  and  experiments  of  natural  science, 
this  will  not  exclude  my  special  oflEice,  which  shall  be  not 
only  to  point  out  the  theology  that  might  be  educed  from  the 
glories  of  the  Divine  workmanship,  but  if  possible  to  neutral- 
ize the  mischief  that  flows  from  but  a  little  learning,  which, 
when  unaccompanied  with  certain  principles  and  considera- 


214  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

tions  that  I  shall  endeavor  to  urge  upon  my  hearers,  is  in- 
deed a  dangerous  thing.  I  hold  that  this  maxim  of  the  poet 
admits  of  being  disarmed,  so  as  that  even  a  little  learning, 
instead  of  a  dangerous,  shall  become  a  profitable  thing,  at 
once  accordant  with  the  modesty  of  true  science,  and  with 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  shall  be  my  as- 
siduous endeavor,  if  I  come  among  you,  to  impress  on  the 
minds  of  those  who  shall  honor  me  with  their  attendance  the 
little  proportion  which  all  that  is  or  can  be  known  bears  to 
all  that  in  our  present  state  must  remain  for  ever  unknown, 
so  as  if  possible  to  convince  you  that  with  every  footstep  of 
growing  knowledge  there  ought  to  be  a  growing  humility — 
that  best  guarantee  both  for  a  sound  philosophy  and  a  sound 
faith. 

"  May  I  beg  that  you  will  lay  this  communication  before 
the  members  of  your  Committee  previous  to  its  appearance 
in  the  Greenock  newspaper  of  Friday,  after  which,  if  no  fresh 
obstacle  be  interposed,  I  shall  find  my  way  quite  open  to  the 
place  of  delivery  for  my  first  lecture  on  the  evening  of  Mon- 
day, when  I  hope  to  have  a  pacific  and  cordial  meeting  with 
you  all.      I  have  the  honor  to  be,  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly, 

**  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"Mr.  Alex.  Muir." 

A  satisfactory  explanation  was  offered,  and  Dr.  Chalmers 
regarded  the  publication  of  his  letter  in  one  of  the  Greenock 
newspapers  as  sufficiently  exonerating  him  from  giving  any 
sanction  to  the  educational  views  held  by  his  predecessors. 
Dr.  Chalmers  and  Dr.  Anderson  lectured  on  alternate  even- 
ings ;  Dr.  Chalmers's  first  lecture  on  the  Education  of  Prin- 
ciple being  delivered  on  Monday  the  28th  September;  his 
second  and  third  on  the  Laws  and  Phenomena  of  Heat  on 
the  Wednesday  and  Friday  following.  It  was  an  occupation 
altogether  to  Dr.  Chalmers's  heart,  and  on  his  return  to  Ed- 
inburgh he  wrote  to  the  Pwev.  Dr.  Macfarlan,  requesting  him 
to  supply  some  memorials  of  this  visit.      "  It  would  complete," 


JET.  60.  LIGHT  AND  DARKNESS.  215 

he  adds,  "  the  record  which  I  wish  to  preserve  of  a  brief  but 
very  interesting  passage  of  my  journey  through  the  world." 
He  spent  the  Christmas  hohdays  of  the  following  winter  with 
the  writer  of  these  pages  in  the  parish  of  Skirling  in  Peebles- 
shire. In  the  village  schoolroom,  to  the  inhabitants  of  a  re- 
mote hamlet,  and  with  the  help  of  a  much  humbler  apparatus, 
the  lectures  on  heat  were  repeated  ;  nor  have  I  ever  seen  him 
kindle  into  a  truer  enthusiasm  than  when,  to  that  plain  but 
intelligent  audience,  he  illustrated  the  truth,  that  the  wider 
man's  knowledge  becomes  the  deeper  should  be  his  humility  ; 
for  the  more  he  knows  the  more  he  sees  of  what  remains  still 
unknown.  Taking  the  board  on  which  the  village  children 
learnt  their  lessons  in  arithmetic,  he  drew  upon  it  a  circle. 
"  Let  that  circle,"  he  said,  "  represent  the  extent  or  com- 
pass of  a  man's  knowledge — the  region  of  light  which  he  has 
conquered  and  made  his  own  out  of  the  surrounding  kingdom 
of  darkness.  Each  point  in  this  circumference  represents  a 
question  about  that  which  is  beyond  and  without,  to  which 
the  man  finds  that  he  can  give  no  answer.  Enlarge  the 
circle,  and  you  multiply  the  number  of  such  points.  The  more, 
therefore,  the  man  enlarges  his  circle  of  light,  he  sees  but  the 
more  of  the  darkness  that  lies  all  around  :  the  ivider  the  di- 
ameter of  light,  the  larger  the  circumference  of  darkness'^ 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

DR.  CHALMERS'S  REJECTION  FROM  THE  CHAIR  OF  THE- 
OLOGY IN  GLASGOW— NARRATIVE  OF  THE  SETTLE- 
MENT AT  MARNOCH— THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF 
1841— THE  DEPOSITION  OF  THE  SEVEN  SUSPENDED 
CLERGYMEN  OF  STRATHBOGIE— THE  SERVING  OF  AN 
INDICTMENT  ON  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY— DR. 
CANDLISH'S  NOMINATION  TO  THE  CHAIR  OF  BIBLICAL 
CRITICISM  SUPERSEDED— PROPOSAL  BY  MR.  SMITH  OF 
GREENOCK— THE  DUKE  OF  ARGYLL'S  BILL— STATE- 
MENT TO  THE  GOVERNMENT  BY  THE  MODERATE 
PARTY— MEETING  OF  THE  COMMISSION  IN  AUGUST- 
FIRST  PROSPECT  OF  THE  DISRUPTION— FAILURE  OF 
THE  NEGOTIATIONS  BY  SIR  GEORGE  SINCLAIR. 

In  August,  1840,  the  Chair  of  Theology  in  the  University 
of  Glasgow  became  vacant.  Although  Dr.  Chalmers  would 
not  present  himself  as  a  candidate,  it  was  understood  that  if 
elected  he  would  accept  this  Chair.  The  choice  lay  with 
the  Senatus,  and  it  was  imagined  that  they  would  seize  eager- 
ly upon  this  opportunity  of  benefiting  and  adorning  their  Uni- 
versity. A  rival,  however,  appeared  upon  the  field  ;  a  rival 
between  whom  and  Dr.  Chalmers,  it  was  not  pretended  that 
any  comparison  as  to  literary  or  professional  qualifications 
could  be  instituted.  He  had,  however,  this  claim  upon  the 
sufirages  of  the  electors — that  while  Dr.  Chalmers  had  iden- 
tified himself  with  the  evangelical  movement,  his  opponent 
had  been  a  consistent  supporter  of  the  Moderate  party  in  the 
Church.  As  the  day=*  named  for  the  election  approached, 
a  large  share  of  public  attention  was  fixed  upon  the  result. 
The  Times,  and  other  leading  London  journals,  warned  the 
electors,  in  no  measured  terms,  of  the  disgrace  which  they 
would  incur,  if,  upon  any  such  ground,  the  pre-eminent  claims 
*  20th  October,  1840. 


JET,m.  THE  GLASGOW  ELECTION.  217 

of  Dr.  Chalmers  were  set  aside.  Nevertheless,  the  electors 
rejected  him  ;  the  same  University  M'hich  had  refused  the 
Chair  of  Logic  to  Edmund  Burke,  refusing  that  of  Theology 
to  Dr.  Chalmers.  There  was  one  voter  upon  this  occasion 
whose  movements  particularly  attracted  the  public  eye.  Sir 
James  Graham  was  at  this  time  Lord  Rector  of  the  Uni- 
versity ;  and  in  the  eloquent  eulogies  of  his  inaugural  ad- 
dress, to  the  illustrious  names  of  Bacon,  Newton,  Locke,  and 
Herschell,  he  had  added  that  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  worthy  of  the 
high  association.  His  office  gave  him  a  vote  in  the  election, 
and  he  undertook  a  journey  to  Glasgow  for  the  purpose  of 
opposing  Dr.  Chalmers's  appointment.  Li  ordinary  circum- 
stances this  had  been  less  noticeable,  as  indeed  there  would 
have  been  little  likelihood  of  its  having  occurred.  As  things 
stood,  however,  coupled  with  the  recent  appearances  of  Lord 
Aberdeen  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  in  the  two  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, it  was  a  clear  index  of  the  extent  to  which  the  Mod- 
erate party  in  the  Church  might  count  upon  Conservative 
support. 

Their  knowledge  of  this  may  have  encouraged  the  seven 
suspended  ministers  of  Strathbogie  to  take  their  final  step. 
Disregarding  the  citation  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  meet- 
ing each  fresh  judgment  of  the  ecclesiastical  tribunal  by  a 
nullifying  edict  obtained  from  the  Civil  Court,  they  had  pro- 
ceeded to  take  Mr.  Edwards  upon  trial,  and  had  found  him 
qualified.  They  hesitated,  however,  as  to  the  act  of  ordina- 
tion. They  had  acted  hitherto  upon  the  decision  of  the 
Court  that  they  were  bound  to  disregard  the  dissent  of  the 
people,  but  as  yet  there  had  been  no  express  order  to  ordain. 
Mr.  Edwards  supplied  them  with  the  authority  under  -which 
they  expressed  their  willingness  to  act,  by  instituting  an  ac- 
tion, in  which  he  craved  the  Court  of  Session  to  issue  an  or- 
der  to  that  effect.  The  question  of  the  competency  of  the 
Civil  Court  to  interfere  directly  with  spiritual  acts,  was  here 
stript  of  all  attendant  or  accessory  considerations.  It  might 
review  the  proceedings  of  a  Presbytery,  and  pass  judgment 

VOL.   IV.— K 


218  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

upon  their  legality;  it  might  declare,  as  it  had  done,  that 
the  rejection  of  a  presentee,  on  the  sole  ground  of  the  people's 
opposition,  was  contrary  to  statute.  All  this,  however,  might 
be  done  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  determine  the  destination 
of  the  benefice,  and  yet  the  Court  might  not  have  felt  itself 
entitled  to  do  what  was  now  asked — give  an  authoritative 
direction  to  ordain.  No  doubt,  however,  was  felt,  no  hesita- 
tion manifested  by  the  majority  of  the  Judges.  Seven  clergy- 
men, suspended  by  the  Church — reponed  by  these  Judges  ; 
declared  by  the  one  authority  to  be  incapable  of  performing 
any  official  act — recognized  by  the  other  authority  as  the 
one  and  only  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie,  were  "  decerned  and 
ordained  to  receive  and  admit "  Mr.  Edwards  as  minister  of 
Marnoch.  This  order  having  been  received,  these  ministers 
proceeded  with  all  due  dispatch  to  execute  it.  The  an- 
nouncement of  their  resolution  to  do  so,  fastened  the  public 
eye  upon  the  scene  of  their  operations.  The  populous  parish 
of  Marnoch  forms  part  of  Banffshire,  lying  in  a  secluded  sit- 
uation along  the  banks  of  the  Deveron.  Its  quiet  and  orderly 
inhabitants  lived  far  from  the  great  centres  of  political  and 
religious  agitation.  Awake,  however,  to  their  own  and  their 
families'  spiritual  interests,  they  had  taken  the  liveliest  con- 
cern in  those  proceedings  now  about  to  be  brought  to  so  strange 
a  close.  Having  done  much  and  periled  much  for  their  protec- 
tion, the  Church  waited  in  intense  anxiety  to  see  how,  in  a  po- 
sition so  new  and  so  peculiar,  this  people  would  comport  them- 
selves. Thursday,  the  21st  January,  1841,  was  the  day  fixed 
for  this  extraordinary  ordination.  A  heavy  snow-gale  had 
passed  over  the  country,  choking  up  the  public  roads,  and 
covering  the  earth  to  the  depth  of  two  feet  and  upwards. 
Stormy,  however,  as  Wednesday  had  been,  and  few  more 
stormy  days  had  been  experienced  for  many  years — deep  as 
the  snow  lay  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  gathered  as  it  was 
in  large  and  almost  impassable  wreaths  on  every  high-way 
and  by-way  in  Banff  and  Aberdeenshire,  early  on  Thursday 
morning  little  bands  of  men  from  all  the  neighboring  parishes, 


/ET.  61.  THE  SETTLEMENT  AT  MARNOCH.  219 

moving  on  in  lines,  the  stoutest  in  advance  breaking  up  a 
path  for  his  companions  who  followed  him,  were  seen  wend- 
ing their  way  to  the  church  of  Marnoch.  In  two  or  three 
carriages  drawn  by  four  horses  each,  the  clerical  actors  and 
their  law-agents  were  conveyed  to  the  same  spot.  A  singu- 
lar assemblage  was  gathered  there  to  greet  their  approach. 
Upon  the  trampled  and  slushy  ground  around  the  kirk,  two 
thousand  men  were  standing.  The  church  doors  were  open- 
ed, and  the  church  was  instantly  and  densely  filled — thick 
groups  gathering  about  doors  and  windows,  who  could  not 
obtain  admittance.  The  lower  part  of  the  building  was  re- 
served for  the  parishioners,  and  the  galleries  for  strangers. 
The  court  having  been  opened  by  prayer,  the  following  dia- 
logue occurred. 

Mr.  Murray,  one  of  the  elders  of  the  parish. — "  I  wish  to 
ask  you  by  whose  authority  you  have  met  here  ?" 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Thomson,  of  Keith,  the  Moderator  of  the 
Presbytery. — "  By  the  authority  of  the  National  Church, 
and  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Mr.  Murray. — "  Have  you  any  proof  to  show  that  you 
came  here  by  the  authority  of  the  National  Church  ?" 

Mr.  Thomson. — "  The  meeting  mpst  be  first  constituted 
by  the  Clerk  reading  the  minutes,  and  we  shall  then  answer 
your  question." 

All  the  necessary  documents  having  been  read,  the  Moder- 
ator remarked  that  they  had  one  party  at  the  bar,  and  asked 
if  there  were  any  other  individuals  who  wished  to  appear  as 
parties  in  the  case.  The  question  called  up  Mr.  Murray, 
and  the  interrupted  dialogue  was  resumed,  the  law-agents  of 
the  respective  parties  taking  now  a  part  in  it. 

Mr.  Murray. — "  Came  you  here  by  the  authority  of  the 
General  Assembly  ?  I  ask  you  that,  before  answering  your 
question." 

Mr.  Thomson. — "  We  will  give  any  information  to  par- 
ties at  the  bar,  but  not  to  any  other.  Do  you  intend  to  sist 
yourself  as  a  party  at  the  bar  ?" 


220  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

Mr.  Murray. — "  No,  Sir  ;  but  at  any  rate  I  should  first 
require  to  know  by  what  authority  you  came  here  ?" 

Me..  Peterkin,  of  Edinburgh. — "  It  is  utterly  impossible 
that  any  person  can  be  heard  who  does  not  appear  as  a  party 
at  the  bar,  and  is  entered  on  the  minutes  a  party  there." 

Mr.  Duncan. — "  As  agent  for  the  elders,  heads  of  fam- 
ilies, and  communicants  of  the  parish  of  Marnoch,  and  par- 
ticularly for  Mr.  Murray,  I  put  again  the  question,  which 
has  been  as  yet  refused  an  answer.  We  can  not  appear  as 
parlies  at  your  bar,  till  we  are  convinced  of  your  authority." 

Mr.  Thomson. — "  Although  we  do  not  admit  the  right 
of  any  party  to  question  us  on  our  authority  for  meeting  here, 
yet  I  have  no  objection  to  say  that  we  are  here  as  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Strathbogie,  a  part  of  the  National  Church,  as- 
sembled in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Mr.  Duncan. — •'  Do  you  appear  here  by  the  authority  of 
the  General  Assembly,  or  against  its  authority  ?" 

Mr.  Thomson. — "  We  are  sent  here  as  the  Presbytery  of 
Strathbogie,  and  under  the  protection  of  the  law  of  the  land." 

Mr.  Duncan. — "  Do  you  give  me  no  reply  to  my  ques- 
tion ?" 

Mr.  Thomson. — "  No,  no." 

As  the  authority  of  the  Presbytery  was  not  recognized  by 
the  people,  the  only  alternative  left  to  Mr.  Duncan  was,  as 
their  agent,  and  in  their  name,  to  read  two  protests,  the  one 
signed  by  all  the  elders,  and  the  other  by  four  hundred  and 
fifty  communicants.  In  the  first  of  these,  the  protesters, 
addressing  themselves  to  the  ministers,  said,  "  It  is  with  ex- 
treme pain  and  disappointment  that  your  personal  position  as 
suspended  ministers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  precludes  us 
from  appearing  before  you  to  lodge  objections  against  the  set- 
tlement of  Mr.  Edwards,  which  have  been  prepared,  and  are 
ready  to  be  substantiated  before  any  competent  Church 
Court.  These  objections  we  solemnly  declare  to  be  such, 
affecting  as  they  do  the  qualifications,  life,  and  doctrine  of 
Mr.  Edwards,  as,  in  our  opinion,  to  cause  his  deposition  even 


JET.  61.  THE  SETTLEMENT  AT  MARNOCH.  221 

if  he  were  an  ordained  minister,  and  to  preclude  him  from 
admission  in  his  character  of  a  Hcentiate  claiming  ordination 
as  presentee  to  our  parish.  *  *  ^  We  earnestly  beg  you  to 
consider  the  above,  and  avoid  the  desecration  of  the  ordinance 
of  ordination  ;  but  if  you  shall  venture  to  disregard  this  re- 
presentation, we  do  solemnly,  and  as  in  the  presence  of  the 
great  Head  of  the  Church,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  repudiate 
and  disown  the  pretended  ordination  of  Mr.  Edwards  as 
minister  of  Marnoch.  We  deliberately  declare,  that  if  such 
proceedings  could  have  any  effect  they  must  involve  the  most 
heinous  guilt  and  fearful  responsibility  in  reference  to  the  dis- 
honor done  to  religion  and  the  cruel  injury  to  the  spiritual 
interests  of  a  united  Christian  consfregfation." 

"  Having  read  the  protest,"  we  quote  now  the  words  of 
an  eye-witness,  "  Mr.  Duncan  said,  '  As  agent  for  the  elders, 
male  heads  of  families,  and  communicants  of  Marnoch,  I 
have  now  only  to  say,  that  they  take  no  further  part  in  these 
unconstitutional  proceedings.  They  wait  a  better  time  and 
another  court.  They  can  have  no  further  business  here, 
and  they  will,  I  believe,  all  accompany  me  from  the  church, 
and  leave  you  to  force  a  minister  on  a  parish  against  the 
people's  will,  but  with  scarcely  one  of  the  parishioners  to 
witness  the  deed.'  The  people  of  Marnoch  immediately  arose 
from  their  seats  in  the  body  of  the  church  :  old  men,  with 
heads  white  as  the  snow  that  lay  deep  on  their  native  hills, 
the  middle-aged,  and  the  young  who  were  but  rising  into 
life.  Gathering  up  their  Bibles  and  Psalm-books,  which  in 
country  churches  often  remain  there  for  half  a  century,  they 
left  the  church,  once  free  to  them  and  theirs,  but  now  given 
up  to  the  spoiler.  They  went  out,  many  in  tears  and  all 
in  grief.  No  word  of  disrespect  or  reproach  escaped  their 
lips.  They  went  away  in  the  strong  conviction  that  their 
cause  was  with  the  most  Powerful,  and  that  with  Him  rest- 
ed the  redress  of  all  their  wrongs.  Even  those  who  sat 
in  the  pew — the  only  pew  representing  Intrusionisrn,  were 
moved — they  were  awed.     '  Will  they  all  leave?'    we  heard 


222  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

some  of  them  whispering.  Yes,  they  all  left,  never  to  re- 
turn."^ 

When  they  left  the  church,  the  people  of  Marnoch  as- 
sembled in  a  snowy  hollow,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  which 
the  church  was  built,  and  having  listened  to  a  short  address 
from  Mr.  Duncan,  in  which  he  strongly  urged  that  every 
thing  should  be  done  with  order,  unity,  and  peace,  they 
separated,  and,  with  a  rare  exercise  of  self-denial,  retired  to 
their  different  homes.  The  place  left  vacant  by  them  in 
the  church  was  immediately  filled  by  a  rush  of  strangers  from 
without,  and  a  disgraceful  scene  of  riotous  disorder  ensued, 
which  it  required  the  presence  of  a  magistrate  to  check. 
When  peace  had  been  restored  the  act  of  ordination  was 
completed.  It  was  an  ordination  altogether  unparalleled  in 
the  history  of  the  Church,  performed  by  a  Presbytery  of  sus- 
pended clergymen,  on  a  Call  by  a  single  communicant,  against 
the  desire  of  the  Patron,  in  face  of  the  strenuous  opposi- 
tion of  a  united  Christian  congregation,  in  opposition  to  the 
express  injunction  of  the  General  Assembly,  at  the  sole  bid- 
ding, and  under  the  sole  authority,  of  the  Court  of  Session. 

The  conduct  of  the  people,  so  decorous  on  the  day  of  this 
ordination,  was  equally  judicious  and  becoming  afterward. 
To  provide  for  the  existing  emergency  they  resolved  to  erect 
a  place  of  worship  for  themselves  in  a  village  three  miles 
from  the  parish  church,  and  where,  whatever  might  be  the 
issue,  a  church  would  be  required.  Many  meetings  were 
held  over  Scotland  to  express  sympathy  with  them  in  their 
painful  position,  and  to  aid  them  in  the  erection  of  this 
church.  It  was  matter  of  sincere  regret  to  Dr.  Chalmers 
that  his  state  of  health  prevented  his  being  present  at  the 
meeting  which  was  held  for  this  purpose  in  Edinburgh.  In 
his  letter  of  apology  to  the  chairman,  and  contemplating  the 

*  Extracted  from  the  "  Aberdeen  Banner,"'  and  from  the  able  pen 
of  its  editor,  Mr.  Troup,  whose  admirable  account  of  the  Marnoch  In- 
trusion was  circulated  widely  over  the  country,  and  made  a  very  deep 
impression. 


MT.  61,  MEETIiNG  AT  EDINBURGH.  223 


necessary  effect  of  this  ordination  at  Marnoch,  he  could  not 
refrain  from  saying,  "  May  Heaven  at  length  open  the  eyes 
of  those  infatuated  men  who  are  now  doing  so  much  to 
hasten  on  a  crisis  which  they  will  be  the  first  to  deplore,  and 
we  most  certainly  shall  do  nothing  to  prevent,  if  at  the 
expense  of  that  adherence  which  we  owe  to  our  Lord  and 
Master  Jesus  Christ,  for  whose  supremacy  in  the  Church  we 
are  willing  to  suffer  all,  casting  the  burden  of  our  whole 
cares  upon  Him,  and  confident  that  out  of  these  tribulations, 
He,  in  His  own  good  time,  will  usher  in  the  peace  and  the 
purity  of  better  days."  The  same  cause  which  detained 
Dr.  Chalmers  from  this  meeting  prevented  his  coming  forward 
publicly  on  behalf  of  the  Church  till  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly  in  May,  1841,  and  but  for  the  Strath- 
bogie  case  he  would  not  even  have  ventured  to  take  any 
part  in  its  proceedings.  He  restricted  himself,  however,  to 
two  appearances.  The  extreme  difficulty  which  had  been 
experienced  in  effecting  any  legal  harmony  between  the 
claims  of  the  patrons  and  the  privileges  of  the  people  had 
gradually  reconciled  him  to  a  public  movement  for  the  total 
abolition  of  lay  patronage  in  the  Church ;  and  in  the  debate, 
which  took  place  on  Tuesday  the  25th  May,  he  gave  ex- 
pression to  his  somewhat  altered  sentiments  on  this  subject. 
He  retired  from  the  Assembly  as  soon  as  he  had  spoken, 
reserving  his  strength  for  Thursday  the  27th,  the  day  on 
which  the  case  of  the  suspended  ministers  was  to  come 
before  the  Court.  These  clergymen  occupied  that  day  in 
St.  Andrew's  church  a  position  very  different  from  that 
which  they  had  occupied  in  the  church  of  Marnoch.  The 
churches  were  equally  crowded,  but  below,  in  place  of  the 
inhabitants  of  a  quiet  rural  parish,  the  whole  area  was  oc- 
cupied by  ministers  and  elders  of  the  Church,  while  eager 
rov/s  of  students  and  citizens  of  the  metropolis  were  seen  piled 
up  in  the  galleries,  packing  the  space  up  to  the  very  walls. 
Instead  of  calling  others  to  their  own  bar,  the  suspended 
clergymen  now  stood  at  the  bar  of  the  General  Assembly. 


221  MEx\IOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841^ 

It  was  a  most  distressing  office  which  the  Assembly  had  to 
discharge,  and  a  sense  of  the  momentous  issues  which  hung 
suspended  upon  the  execution  of  it  inspired  an  unwonted 
solemnity.  Dr.  Chalmers  was  well  aware  that  the  act  about 
to  be  performed  would  meet  with  the  laudest  condemnation 
from  mere  secular  politicians,  from  all  who  eould  find  no 
room  in  the  commonwealth,  no  room  even  in  the  Church, 
for  the  supremacy  of  any  other  law  than  that  which  the 
civil  tribunals  of  the  country  were  instituted  to  interpret  and 
enforce.  He  desired,  therefore,  not  only  to  take  his  full 
share  of  the  responsibility,  but  to  place  himself  here  in  the 
front  of  the  battle  ;  and  solemn  prayer  having  been  offered 
up  for  guidance  from  on  high,  he  moved  that  the  Assembly 
should,  in  the  first  instance,  find  that  these  clergymen  had 
committed  offenses  involving  deposition.  "  We  are  told," 
he  said,  "  by  the  friends  of  these  gentlemen,  that  in  all  they 
have  done  they  have  been  actuated  by  a  sense  of  duty,  or  by 
the  impulse  of  a  conscience  stirring  within  them,  and  which 
they  found  to  be  irresistible.  We  will  not  deny  this,  and 
we  have  no  interest  in  denying  it ;  but  I  would  ask,  when 
we  deposed  Mr.  Irving,  the  other  year,  for  an  alleged  heresy, 
did  we  make  our  decision  turn  upon  his  conscience  ?  or  did 
we  take  evidence  on  the  consciences  of  Mr.  Maclean  and  Mr. 
Dow,  when  we  took  his  license  from  the  one,  and  his  paro- 
chial charge  from  the  other  ?  or  were  we  arrested  by  the 
conscience  or  the  conscientiousness  of  that  holy  and  excellent 
person,  Mr.  Campbell  of  Pl.ow,  when  we  ejected  him  from 
his  status  as  a  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ?  Sir,  I 
know  not  what  the  inward  principle  of  the  ministers  of 
Strathbogie  may  have  been,  nor  will  I  attempt  any  conject- 
ure on  this  subject ;  but  I  do  know,  that  when  forbidden  by 
their  ecclesiastical  superiors  to  proceed  any  further  with  Mr. 
Edwards,  they  took  him  upon  trials  ;  and  when  suspended 
from  the  functions  of  the  sacred  ministry  by  a  Commission 
of  the  General  Assembly,  they  continued  to  preach  and  to 
dispense  the  sacraments — that  they  called  in  the  aid  of  the 


iET.  61.  SPEECH  LN  THE  ASSEMBLY.  i>25 

civil  power  to  back  them  in  the  exclusion  from  their  respect, 
ive  parishes  of  clergymen  appointed  by  the  only  competent 
Court  to  fulfill  the  office  which  they  were  no  longer  competent 
to  discharge  ;  and  lastly,  as  if  to  crown  and  consummate  this 
whole  disobedience — as  if  to  place  the  top-stone  on  the 
Babel  of  their  proud  and  rebellious  defiance,  I  know  that,  to 
the  scandal  and  astonishment  of  all  Scotland,  and  with  a 
daring  which  I  believe  themselves  would  have  shrunk  from  at 
the  outset  of  their  headlong  career,  they  put  forth  their  un- 
licensed hands  on  the  dread  work  of  ordination  ;  and  as  if 
in  solemn  mockery  of  the  Church's  most  venerable  forms, 
asked  of  the  unhappy  man  who  knelt  before  them  if  he 
promised  '  to  submit  himself  humbly  and  willingly,  in  the 
spirit  of  meekness,  unto  the  admonitions  of  the  brethren  of 
the  Presbytery,  and  to  be  subject  to  them  and  all  other 
Presbyteries  and  superior  judicatories  of  this  Church  ;'  and 
got  back  from  him  an  affirmative  response,  along  with  the 
declaration  that  '  zeal  for  the  honor  of  God,  love  to  Jesus 
Christ,  and  desire  of  saving  souls,  were  his  great  motives 
and  chief  inducements  to  enter  into  the  functions  of  the  holy 
ministry,  and  not  worldly  designs  and  interests. '=^  Sir,  I 
repeat  I  am  not  able  to  go  into  the  depth  and  the  m.ysteries 
of  men's  consciences  ;  but  this  I  am  able  to  perceive,  that 
if  in  heresy  this  plea  were  sustained,  the  Church  would  be 
left  without  a  creed;  and  that  if  in  contumacy  this  plea 
were  sustained,  the  Church  would  be  left  without  a  govern- 
ment, both  doctrine  and  discipline  would  be  given  to  the 
winds,  and  our  National  Church  were  bereft  of  all  her  virtue 
to  uphold  the  Christianity  of  the  nation,  when  thus  helpless 
and  degraded,  she  was  alike  unable  to  correct  the  errors, 
however  deadly,  or  to  control  the  waywardness,  however 
pernicious  and  perverse,  of  her  own  children. 

"  The  Church  of  Scotland  can  never  give  way,  and  will 
sooner  give  up  her  existence  as  a  National  Establishment, 

*  From  the  questions  put  preparatory  to  ordination,  the  answers  to 
which  constitute  the  ordination  vows. 


Q26  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 


than  give  up  her  power  as  a  self-acting  and  self-regulating 
body,  to  do  what  in  her  judgment  is  best  for  the  honor  of 
the  Redeemer  and  the  interest  of  His  kingdom  upon  earth. 
We  can  see  no  other  alternative.  If  these  men  do  not  hum- 
ble themselves,  their  deposition  is  inevitable.  The  Church 
of  Scotland  can  not  tolerate,  and  what  is  more,  it  could  not 
survive  the  scandal  of  quietly  putting  up  with  a  dehnquency 
so  enormous  as  that  into  which  these  brethren  have  fallen. 
If  the  vindication  of  her  outraged  authority  is  indeed  to  be 
the  precursor  of  her  dissolution  as  a  National  Church — if,  in 
the  recent  language  of  an  offended  nobleman  within  these 
walls — if  this  is  to  be  the  last  knell  of  the  Presbyterian 
establishment  in  Scotland,  only  let  the  Legislature  say  so  : 
and  then  let  it  be  seen  whether  or  not  the  Church  of  our 
fathers  be  prepared  to  abjure  her  connection  with  the  State, 
rather  than,  bereft  of  all  her  respect,  and  so  of  all  her  use- 
fulness, she  will  submit  to  be  vilified  into  a  thing  of  naught." 
Dr.  Cook  moved,  in  opposition,  that  all  proceedings  insti- 
tuted against  these  clergymen  should  be  set  aside  as  incom- 
petent, and  that  they  should  be  declared  to  be  in  the  same 
situation  in  all  respects  as  if  no  such  proceedings  had  ever 
taken  place.  The  debate,  which  commenced  early  in  the  fore- 
noon, was,  after  a  brief  adjournment,  resumed  in  the  evening, 
and  lasted  for  nearly  twelve  hours.  At  its  close,  Dr.  Chal- 
mers's motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  97,  in  a  house  of 
347  members.  Immediately  after  the  vote  M'^as  taken,  one 
of  the  suspended  clergymen,  on  the  part  of  himself  and  his 
brethren,  read  a  statement  to  the  House,  in  which  th'ey  said 
— "  We  acknowledge  that  we  owe  all  duty,  and  we  are  ready 
to  yield  all  obedience  to  the  Church  in  all  things  lawful ; 
but  we  can  not  consent  to  violate  the  rights  of  others,  or  to 
assist  in  violating  the  law,  or  to  abandon  the  duty  which  we 
owe  to  the  State,  merely  because  a  majority  of  office-bearers 
in  the  Church  have  arbitrarily  resolved  to  require  it.  ^  *  =^ 
We  are  here  then  to  justify  ourselves  in  the  acts  that  are 
set  forth  in  the  libel."  *  *  ^  Having  read  a  lengthened  jus- 


^T.  61.      DEPOSITION  OF  THE  SEVEN  MINISTERS.  227 

tification  of  their  conduct,  they  retired  from  the  House.  It 
was  now  long  past  midnight,  and  nothing  remained  but  that 
the  solemn  act  of  deposition  should  be  performed.  The  Rev. 
Dr.  Macfarlan  of  Greenock  rose  and  said — "  In  the  absence 
of  my  respected  friend  Dr.  Chalmers" — it  was  known  that 
Dr.  Chalmers  had  retired  immediately  after  he  had  spoken 
in  the  forenoon,  and  it  was  not  imagined  that  at  so  late  an 
hour  he  would  be  in  the  House.  He  had  returned,  however, 
and  was  sitting  at  this  time  in  a  remote  part  of  the  Church, 
unnoticed  by  those  who  were  around  the  Moderator's  chair. 
At  the  mention  of  his  name  numerous  intimations  were  made 
of  his  presence,  and  Dr.  Macfarlan  immediately  gave  way. 
Advancing  to  the  table  amid  the  profound  silence  of  the  vast 
assemblage.  Dr.  Chalmers  said — "  I  am  sorry  to  find,  from, 
the  resolute  and  unyielding  appearance  of  the  gentlemen  at 
the  bar,  that  there  is  now  no  alternative  but  to  submit  the 
following  motion  :  That  the  General  Assembly,  in  respect 
of  each  of  the  said  offenses  of  which  the  said  parties  have 
respectively  been  found  guilty  as  aforesaid,  as  each  by  it- 
self involving  deposition,  do  depose  the  said  Messrs.  John 
Cruickshank,  William  Cowie,  WiUiam  Allardyce,  William 
Masson,  James  Walker,  James  Thomson,  and  James  Alex- 
ander Cruickshank,  from  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry." 
The  motion  passed  without  a  vote  ;  but  before  the  sentence 
of  deposition  was  pronounced.  Dr.  Cook  read  a  protest,  in 
which,  for  himself  and  for  as  many  as  would  join  with  him, 
it  was  declared — "  We  regard  it  as  binding  upon  every  mem- 
ber of  a  Church  as  established  by  law  to  be  subject  to  the  civil 
power  in  all  matters  declared  by  the  supreme  civil  authorities 
of  the  country  to  affect  temporal  rights,  and  that  for  con- 
science' sake  ;  and  firmly  convinced  as  we  are  that  the  said 
ministers  have  acted  in  conformity  to  this  obligation,  and  that 
they  have  done  nothing  which  is  not  sanctioned  both  by  ec- 
clesiastical and  civil  law,  we  can  not,  without  violating  M'hat 
we  owe  to  the  Church  and  State,  cease  to  regard  these  men 
as  still  ministers,  just  as  if  the  proceedings  against  them  had 


228  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

never  been  instituted."  Such  a  rush  was  made  to  sign  this 
paper,  that  for  a  time  the  order  of  the  House  was  broken, 
and  its  proceedings  stopped.  When  quiet  was  restored,  the 
Moderator,  Dr.  Gordon,  called  on  the  Rev.  Dr.  Brown  of 
Glasgow  to  engage  in  prayer,  after  which  he  pronounced  from 
the  chair  the  solemn  sentence  of  deposition.  It  was  about 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  the  Assembly  adjourned, 
the  House  remaining  crowded  to  the  last  moment. 

On  assembling  the  following  day,  it  was  felt  that  the  decla- 
ration which  had  been  laid  ou  the  table  the  night  before,  and 
which  so  many  of  the  Moderate  party  had  exhibited  such 
eagerness  to  sign,  was  such,  that  if  carried  out  in  action,  an 
immediate  and  total  breach  between  the  two  parties  was  in- 
evitable. Without  pressing  the  matter  as  far  as  the  character 
of  the  document  appeared  to  demand,  Mr.  Dunlop  moved  that 
the  Assembly  should  simply  refuse  to  receive  it.  Dr.  Cook 
intimated  that  he  and  his  friends  "  had  no  desire  to  push 
the  matter  farther  at  present ;  they  had  no  desire  to  take 
steps  at  present  to  follow  out  their  opinions,  and  therefore  he 
would  not  oppose  the  motion  of  his  learned  friend,  that  the 
protest  be  not  received."  The  impending  danger  thus  seemed 
to  be  postponed.  On  the  evening,  however,  of  the  following 
day  a  new  alarm  was  sounded,  and  the  House  was  thrown  into 
a  state  of  extreme  excitement.  While  a  debate  on  the  elder- 
ship was  quietly  proceeding,  the  Moderator  interrupted  the 
speaker  to  inform  the  Assembly  that  he  had  just  received  an 
intimation  that  a  messenger-at-arms  was  waiting  at  the  door 
to  serve  upon  the  Assembly  an  interdict  against  their  proceed- 
ing to  carry  the  sentence  of  deposition  into  effect.  For  a  few 
minutes  the  deep  silence  of  amazement  and  uncertainty  pre- 
vailed. It  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Dunlop,  that  as  her  Majesty's 
Commissioner  was  not  present,  a  deputation  should  proceed 
forthwith  to  his  Grace  to  inform  him  of  the  circumstance. 
Till  the  result  of  this  movement  was  known,  the  debate  was 
recommenced.  It  had  not  been  long  resumed  when  the  Com- 
missioner arrived,  and   having   received   formal   intimation 


^T.  61.  REJECTION  OF  DR.  CANDLISH.  229 

through  the  Moderator  of  what  had  occurred,  he  said — "  I  am 
at  all  times  happy  to  be  present  with  you.  It  is  my  duty; 
and,  in  the  exercise  of  that  duty,  I  trust  I  shall  not  be  found 
wanting,  whether  it  be  to  uphold  the  rights  of  the  Assembly 
or  to  support  and  maintain  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown, 
from  whatever  quarter  they  maybe  assailed."  The  messenger- 
at-arms  had  in  the  mean  time  left  the  interdict  with  the 
Assembly's  officer  at  the  door,  and  withdrawn.  The  docu- 
ment was  laid  upon  the  table,  and  the  House  adjourned.  On 
Monday,  a  series  of  resolutions,  carefully  reciting  all  the  cir- 
cumstances as  they  occurred,  and  declaring  the  attempt  thus 
made  to  be  a  flagrant  breach  of  the  privileges  of  the  National 
Church,  were  passed,  and  ordered  to  be  transmitted  to  her 
Majesty  the  Queen  in  Council  ;  and  without  further  notice 
of  the  interference,  the  business  of  the  Assembly  was  resumed. 
The  Parliamentary  session  of  1841  had  opened  on  the 
26th  January,  and  on  the  28th,  in  answer  to  a  question  by 
Lord  Haddington,  the  Premier  intimated  that  it  was  not  the 
intention  of  the  Government  to  bring  in  any  measure  for  alter- 
ing the  Law  of  Patronage  in  Scotland  ;  that  in  the  meantime 
the  authority  of  the  existing  law  should  be  enforced,  and  effect- 
ual means  taken  for  protecting  those  who  were  determined 
to  obey  it.  Lord  Melbourne  did  not  specify  what  particular 
methods  of  enforcement  or  protection  were  to  be  employed. 
A  somewhat  singular  illustration,  however,  of  the  equivocal 
conduct  of  the  Government  was  ere  long  supplied.  Having 
resolved  to  institute  a  new  Chair  of  Bibhcal  Criticism  in 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  they  had  selected  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Candlish  as  an  individual  pre-eminently  qualified  to  fill  it. 
No  sooner  did  their  intention  become  known,  than  Lord  Aber- 
deen brought  the  matter  before  the  House  of  Lords,  vehement- 
ly condemning  such  an  appointment,  on  the  ground  that  Dr. 
Candlish  had  recently  broken  an  interdict  of  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion by  preaching  in  Strathbogie.  The  Government  yielded, 
and  at  the  last  moment  the  appointment  was  quashed.  Lord 
Normanby  remarking,  "  that,  in  consequence  of  many  recom- 


230  MEMOIRS  UF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

mendations  in  his  favor,  Her  Majesty's  Government  had  been 
disposed  to  give  Dr.  Candlish  the  appointment,  but  the  mo- 
ment they  heard  that  he  had  placed  himself  in  opposition  to 
the  law,  they  at  once  put  an  end  to  all  further  proceedings 
upon  the  subject."  It  was  notorious  that  Dr.  Candhsh  had 
acted  under  the  sanction  of  the  Assembly,  and  had  done 
nothing  more  than  had  been  done  by  almost  all  the  leading 
ministers  of  the  Evangelical  party.  If  he  and  they  were  guilty 
of  such  acts  as  disqualified  them  for  being  the  objects  of  Gov- 
ernment patronage — if  they  had  actually  placed  themselves 
in  opposition  to  the  law,  some  other  and  more  stringent  pro- 
cedure against  them  was  imperatively  demanded  ;  but  so  long 
as  the  constitutional  question,  whether  their  acts  were  acts 
ofrebellion  or  not,  remained  unsettled,  and  so  long  as  the  Gov- 
ernment itself  declined  legislatively  to  determine  that  ques- 
tion, it  seemed  unfair  to  single  out  an  individual,  and  to  in- 
flict upon  him  such  a  penalty.  It  gave  the  Church,  however, 
distinctly  to  understand,  that  while  neither  of  the  two  great 
political  parties  in  the  State  were  disposed  to  interfere  for 
her  extrication,  they  both  agreed  in  regarding  it  as  impera- 
tive upon  her  to  give  such  obedience  to  the  law,  as  the  Court 
of  Session  was  requiring  at  her  hands.  There  was  neither 
the  candor  to  concede  her  claims,  nor  the  boldness  to  repu- 
diate them.  Had  the  law-officers  of  the  Crown  received 
instructions  to  proceed  in  ordinary  course  to  vindicate  the 
authority  of  the  law  ;  had  complaints  against  any  or  all  of 
those  clergymen  who  had  preached  in  Strathbogie  been  lodg- 
ed in  Court,  and  the  common  compulsitors  of  law — fine  or 
imprisonment — been  put  into  operation  ;  had  the  Church 
even  authoritatively  been  told  by  the  Government,  that  she 
must  either  retrace  her  steps,  undo  what  she  had  done,  and 
submit  to  all  the  adverse  sentences  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
or  be  visited  with  all  the  common  penalties  which  an  infrac- 
tion of  law  incurred,  she  would  have  known  better  what  to 
do.  As  it  was,  hor  position  was  so  painful,  that  it  occurred 
to  some  ministers  in  Greenock  and  its  vicinity,  that  instead 


MT.  Gl.  PROPOSAL  OF  MR.  SMITH.  231 

of  waiting  till  interminable  litigation  from  without,  and  a 
wider  anarchy  from  within,  rendered  it  impossible  for  her 
to  carry  on  her  government,  she  should  go  forward  to  the 
Legislature,  and  insist  either  that  her  spiritual  independence 
should  be  recognized  and  secured,  or  that  the  connection  be- 
tween her  and  the  State  should  be  dissolved.  This  proposal 
was  communicated  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Smith  of  Greenock  to 
a  few  of  the  leading  friends  of  the  Church  in  Edinburgh. 
It  seemed  more  premature  to  others  than  it  did  to  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, who  replied  as  follows  : 

"  Edinburgh,  March  2ith,  1841. 

*'  My  dear  Sir — I  am  quite  in  love  with  your  proposition, 
insomuch  that  if  sure  of  an  instant  majority  in  its  favor,  I 
would  have  it  tabled  instantly.  My  fear  is  that  many  of 
our  truest  friends,  while  they  might  admire  the  step  as  ulti- 
mately the  very  best  for  our  Church,  yet  would  view  it  still 
as  a  measure  in  reserve,  or  that  the  time  for  its  being  carried 
into  effect  had  not  just  yet  arrived.  You  must  agree  with 
myself  in  thinking,  that,  if  because  of  the  influence  of  such 
a  feeling  we  were  left  in  a  minority  should  it  be  proposed 
now,  it  were  better  that  we  waited  a  little  longer  the  pro- 
gress of  events — the  leadings  and  indications  of  Providence, 
ere  we  come  to  the  final  resolution  which  you  and  your 
friends  now  overture  ;  and  which  I  most  cordially  feel  with 
yourselves  to  be  by  far  the  most  graceful  and  dignified 
method  on  our  part  of  terminating  the  contest. 

"  Meanwhile  every  efibrt  should  be  made,  not  only  to  ascer- 
tain the  sentiments  of  the  clergy  on  this  proposal,  but  to  rec- 
ommend it,  as  being  in  fact  the  best  acquittal  which  the 
Church  could  make  of  the  part  which  belongs  to  her — so 
soon  as  circumstances  shall  at  length  announce  the  fit  and 
suitable  period  for  such  a  crisis.  I  fear  it  were  still  prema- 
ture to  confer  with  Presbyteries  on  the  subject ;  and  more 
especially  as  they  would  have  greatly  too  little  time  for 
making  up  their  minds  previous  to  the  election  of  their  this 


232  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

year's  representatives  ;  but  when  the  Assembly  meets,  one 
could  better  ascertain  the  dispositions  and  views  of  the  breth- 
ren. Were  a  decided  majority  prepared  for  such  a  step,  I 
should  rejoice  in  the  immediate  adoption  of  it ;  and,  at  all 
events,  I  hope  a  declaration  will  be  so  framed,  as  shall  com- 
mit us  to  the  very  measure  which  you  have  suggested,  by 
the  next  Assembly  thereafter,  should  no  redress  by  that  time 
be  had  from  the  Legislature,  for  our  now  increasing  and  ag- 
gravated wrongs. 

"  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  hear  farther  from  you  on  this 
important  matter.  You  point  at  a  noble  outgoing,  which  I 
hope,  if  matters  come  to  the  worst,  we  shall  be  enabled  to 
realize. — I  ever  am,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  most  cordially, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  The  Rev.  James  Smith." 

Another  gleam  of  light  was  hovering  on  the  dark  horizon. 
A  few  days  before  this  letter  was  written,  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
had  given  notice  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  his  intention  to 
bring  in  a  Bill  for  the  settlement  of  the  Scotch  Church  ques- 
tion. The  Duke's  measure  was  introduced  on  the  5th  May. 
It  differed  from  the  Veto  Law  only  by  extending  the  right 
of  dissent  to  all  male  communicants,  instead  of  restricting  it 
to  the  male  heads  of  families,  and  by  making  specific  provi- 
sion for  the  veto  being  set  aside,  whenever  it  could  be  proved 
to  have  sprung  from  factious  motives  or  causeless  prejudices. 
At  its  first  reading,  it  met  with  strenuous  opposition  from 
Lords  Aberdeen,  Haddington,  and  Dunfermline.  Its  farther 
consideration  was  postponed  till  after  the  meeting  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly.  The  discussion  of  its  merits  within  that 
venerable  Court  was  signalized  by  the  remarkable  effect  of 
an  appeal  made  by  Dr.  Candlish  to  the  Moderate  party.  So 
sincere,  so  affectionate,  so  solemn,  and  so  forcible  was  that 
appeal,  that  for  a  moment  it  seemed  as  if  Dr.  Cook  and  his 
iViends  would  withdraw  their  opposition  to  a  measure,  under 
which  it  was  admitted  that  they  could  act  without  any  vio- 


.«T.  61.  APPEAL  TO  THE  MODERATE  PARTY.  233 

lence  done  to  conscience ;   and  had  it  gone  up  to  Parliament 
with  the  seal  upon  it  of  an  unopposed  approval  on  the  part 
of  the  Church,  this  might  have  gone  far  to  recommend  its 
adoption  to  the  Legislature.      The  hope  was  but  momentary. 
While  reciprocating  the  brotherly  spirit  in  which  they  had 
been  addressed,  the  Moderate  party  could  not  see  it  to  bo 
consistent  with  the  duty  which  they  owed  to  the  Church  and 
country  to  withhold  their   opposition.      Nevertheless   by    a 
majority   of  more   than   two   to   one — the  largest  majority 
which  had  occurred  in  the  course  of  these  divisions,  the  House 
declared  its  approval  of  the  measure.      So  marked  an  ex- 
pression of  the  Church's  feeling  must  have  had  some  weight 
at  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill.      But  before  the  time  for 
that  second  reading  arrived,  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  obtained 
his  majority  on  the  vote  of  want  of  confidence  in  the  min- 
istry.     Parliament  was  immediately  dissolved.      The  elec- 
tions sealed  the  fate  of  the  Melbourne  Administration,  and 
on  the  30th  August,  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  at  the  head  of 
the  strongest  Government  the  country  had  known  for  years. 
Meanwhile  in  Scotland,  untoward  movements  on  the  part 
of  the  Church's  adversaries  were  hurrying  things  onward 
to  the  fatal  catastrophe.      A  deputation  from  the  minority 
in    the    General  Assembly,    which    had    opposed    the  depo- 
sition   of  the   Strathbogie    ministers,   had    gone   to  London 
early  in  June,  and  laid  before  the  Government  an  elaborate 
statement  on  behalf  of  the  deposed  clergymen,  and  the  mi- 
nority by  whom  they  were  supported.      This  statement  was 
signed  by   Principal   Macfarlan,    Dr.  Hill,    Dr.  Bryce,  Mr. 
Grant  of  Leith,  and  Mr.  Robertson  of  Ellon.      It  contained 
the  following  ominous  declarations  :    "  The  minority  and  those 
that  adhere  to  them,  can  not  in  conscience  submit  to  this 
decision — [the  act  of  deposition] — they  can  not,  in  conscience, 
whatever  may  be  the  consequences,  fail  to  act  in  opposition 
to  it."   *  ^  =^   '<  If  Government  will  only  intimate  its  reso- 
lute purpose  of  upholding  the  present  law,  until  the  final 
findings  of  this  law  in  regard  to  the  cases  which  have  actually 


234  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

arisen  shall  have  been  ascertained  and  complied  with,  the 
temporary  excitement  that  now  prevails  on  the  subject  will 
soon  in  great  measure  pass  away.  It  is,  they  are  fully  per- 
suaded, because  sufficient  care  has  not  been  taken  to  guard 
against  the  cherishing  of  delusive  and  unconstitutional  ex- 
pectations, that  matters  have  reached  in  Scotland  the  fear- 
ful crisis  to  which  they  have  now  attained."  *=**«<  If  the 
responsible  advisers  of  the  Crown  shall  be  prepared  to  in- 
struct their  law-officers  to  maintain  in  the  Civil  Courts  the 
cause  of  the  ministers  of  Strathbogie,  and  of  others  who  may 
be  placed  in  similar  circumstances,  and  to  'pros.ecute  for 
breach  of  interdict,  &c.,  those  who  may,  in  opposition  to  in- 
terdicts granted  by  the  competent  Courts,  invade  the  rights 
of  such  parties,  the  minority  of  the  last  General  Assembly, 
and  the  large  body  of  office-bearers  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
who  hold  views  in  common  with  that  minority,  icill  have 
much  reason  to  he  satisfied''  *  *  ^  "If  her  Majesty's 
Government  shall  be  of  opinion  that  less  stringent  measures 
may  be  effectual  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  object  in 
view,  they  are  not  only  willing  but  most  anxious  that  such 
measures  should  have  in  the  first  instance  a  fair  trial." 
Worse  than  the  open  declaration  that  they  would  voluntarily 
act  in  opposition  to  a  decision  of  their  Church,  and  worse  even 
than  the  expression  of  satisfaction  at  the  prosecution  and  pun- 
ishment of  the  most  eminent  ministers  of  the  Establishment, 
was  the  assurance  given  here  to  the  Government,  that  no- 
thing but  a  slight  exercise  of  coercion  was  needed  to  remove 
that  temporary  agitation  which  false  hopes  had  stirred.  The 
majority  had  solemnly  declared  that  the  law  as  now  inter- 
preted was  one  which  they  could  not  conscientiously  obey. 
The  minority  came  forward  to  affirm  that  this  was  not  so  ; 
and  that  if  force  were  but  firmly  applied  the  consciences  of 
their  brethren  would  give  way.  It  was  that  incredulity  as 
to  the  religious  integrity  of  the  evangelical  ministers  ;  it 
was  this  false  witnessing  to  Government  by  those  who,  being 
clergymen  themselves,  were  supposed  to  be  best  able  to  take 


JET.  Gl.     STATEMENT  BY  THE  MODERATE  PARTY.  235 

the  true  gauge  and  measure  of  the  clerical  conscience,  which 
lay  at  the  root  of  the  Disruption. 

Before  the  meeting  of  the  Commission  on  the  1 1  th  August, 
one  part  of  the  London  statement  had  been  made  good.  Mr. 
Grant,  Mr.  Robertson,  and  others,  had  held  ministerial  com- 
munion with  the  deposed  clergymen,  and  assisted  them  in 
the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  This  act  of  gratu- 
itous insubordination  M^as  reported  to  the  Commission,  which, 
prosecuting  its  clear  but  painful  course  of  duty,  instructed 
the  Presbyteries  to  which  the  offending  ministers  belonged, 
to  take  such  steps  as  were  necessary  for  vindicating  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  and  proposed  that  a  "  solemn  re- 
monstrance and  warning"  should  be  prepared  and  addressed 
to  them.  When  the  resolution  to  this  effect  was  carried. 
Dr.  Cook  gave  in  reasons  of  dissent,  the  second  of  which 
was  as  follows  : — "  Because  the  resolution  now  sanctioned, 
puts  an  end  to  all  hope  of  devising  any  measure  by  which 
the  members  of  the  Church  might  be  united,  and  imposes 
upon  us,  and  upon  all  who  agree  with  us  in  the  opinion 
which  we  have  repeatedly  expressed  as  to  our  present  dis- 
tressing condition,  to  take  such  steps  as  may  appear  most 
effectual  for  ascertaining  from  competent  authority,  whether 
we  who  now  dissent,  and  they  who  concur  with  us,  or  they 
who  continue  to  set  at  naught  the  law  of  the  land,  and  the 
decisions  of  the  Civil  Courts  in  what  we  esteem  a  matter  of 
civil  right,  are  to  be  held  by  the  Legislature  of  the  country 
as  constituting  the  Established  Church,  and  as  entitled  to 
the  privileges  and  endowments  conferred  by  Statute  upon 
the  ministers  of  that  Church."  Instead  of  the  question 
coming  before  the  Legislature  as  one  between  the  Church 
and  the  Civil  Courts,  Dr.  Cook  desired  to  present  it  as  one 
between  two  parties  in  the  Church  who  could  not  longer 
remain  united,  one  or  other  of  which  must  be  repudiated  by 
the  Legislature.  If  actually  entertained  in  that  form  by  the 
Administration  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  there  could  be  no  doubt 
of  the  decision  being  in  favor  of  that  party  to  which  Dr. 


236  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

Cook  was  attached.  The  prospect  of  so  speedy  a  settlement 
demanded  the  most  prompt  and  vigorous  measures  ;  and  a 
special  meeting  of  the  Commission  was  summoned  to  meet  on 
the  25th  August.  Dr.  Chalmers,  who  had  not  been  at  the 
previous  meeting,  resolved  to  be  present  upon  this  occasion, 
that  he  might  sound  the  key-note  of  preparation  for  that 
event  which  he  now  believed  to  be  almost,  if  not  altogether 
inevitable.  "As  to  the  war  of  argument,"  he  said,  "that 
is  now  over  ;  seeing  the  time  has  come  when  the  strife  of 
words  must  give  place  to  the  strife  of  opposing  deeds  and  op- 
posing purposes.  In  this,  the  ministers  of  the  other  side 
have  set  us  the  example.  They  have  begun  with  deeds 
which  we  must  disallow;  and  they  now  tell  us  that  they 
mean  to  call  on  the  Legislature  for  their  declaration,  which 
of  the  two  parties  is  henceforth  to  be  the  Established  Church 
of  Scotland.  It  is  but  justice  both  to  the  public  and  to  the 
Government,  that  they  should  know  how  it  is  that  we  stand 
affected  by  such  an  intimation.  There  has  I  fear  been  a 
strange  incredulity  all  along,  in  regard  to  the  strength  of  our 
principles,  or  at  what  hazard,  and  to  what  extent  of  sacrifice, 
we  have  resolved  to  maintain  them.  The  necessity  is  now 
laid  upon  us,  that  we  should  make  a  distinct  and  articulate 
reply  to  this  question,  and  my  fondest  prayer,  even  as  for  the 
salvation  both  of  the  country  and  of  the  Church,  is  for  the 
response  of  an  unshrinking  and  undimini.shed  majority  that 
the  principles  on  which  they  have  hitherto  acted  they  are 
resolved  to  abide  by,  whatever  be  the  hazard,  and  whatever 
be  the  sacrifice.  ^  *  *  It  is  our  solemn  duty  to  do  all  we 
can  for  the  averting  of  such  a  catastrophe  (the  breaking  up 
of  the  Establishment),  and  heaven  forbid  that  it  should  be 
hastened  on  by  any  indiscretion,  still  less  by  any  disrespect, 
or  any  deed  of  violence  on  our  part.  =^  *  ^  I  will  proceed  no 
further,  and  for  this  single  reason,  lest  the  language  of  determ 
ination  should  be  interpreted  into  the  language  of  defiance. 
Most  assuredly  I  have  no  desir^that  the  breach  should  be 
any  further  widened  :   and  yet  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 


JET.  61.  SPEECH  AT  THE  COMMISSION.  237 

— of  the  utmost  practical  importance  for  the  right  settlement 
of  this  question — that  the  state  of  matters  should  be  plainly 
understood,  for  nothing  can  exceed  the  misconception,  cher- 
ished especially  by  the  higher  classes,  both  in  this  country 
and  in  London.  Be  it  known  unto  all  men  then,  that  we 
have  no  wish  for  a  disruption,  but  neither  stand  we  in  the 
overwhelming  dread  of  it.  We  have  no  ambition,  as  has 
pleasantly  been  said  of  us,  for  martyrdoms  of  any  sort,  but 
neither  will  we  shrink  from  the  hour  or  the  day  of  trial.  In 
short,  let  it  be  distinctly  known,  both  over  the  country  at 
large,  and  more  especially  in  the  camp  of  our  adversaries, 
that,  whatever  the  misgivings  might  be  in  other  quarters, 
among  us  there  are  no  falterings,  no  fears.  Should  what 
has  been  termed  the  crisis  arrive,  we  know  of  a  clear,  and 
an  honorable,  and  withal  a  Christian  outgoing ;  confident 
in  the  smile  of  an  approving  heaven  from  above,  and  that 
confidence  not  abated  when  we  look  around  on  the  goodly 
spectacle  of  our  friends  and  fei low-Christians — the  best  and 
worthiest  of  Scotland's  sons — in  readiness  to  hail  and  to 
harbor  the  men  who  are  willing  to  give  up  all  for  the  sake 
of  conscience  and  of  Christian  liberty.  The  God  whom  they 
serve  will  not  leave  them  without  help  or  without  a  home." 
To  be  prepared  for  the  worst,  the  Commission  appointed 
a  large  Committee,  with  instructions  to  bring  "  the  principles 
and  privileges  of  the  Church,  as  well  as  the  dangers  that 
may  threaten  us,  before  the  Government,  the  Legislature, 
and  the  country  at  large,  by  deputations,  public  statements, 
meetings,  and  such  other  means  as  may  appear  expedient." 
The  first  public  meeting  held  in  fulfillment  of  this  resolution 
took  place  in  the  Church  of  St.  Cuthbert's,  Edinburgh,  on 
the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  the  Commission  met.  That 
church  exhibited  on  this  occasion  an  extraordinary  spectacle. 
Fourteen  hundred  ministers  and  elders  were  crowded  to- 
gether in  the  lower  part  of  the  building,  while  from  the 
double  tiers  of  galleries  as  many  spectators  as  could  force 
their  way  into  the  edifice  were  gazing  down  upon  the  scene. 


238  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 


The  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon  occupied  the  chair,  and  a  resolution 
to  adhere  at  all  hazards  to  the  principles  upon  which  the 
Church  had  taken  her  stand  was  unanimously  adopted  by 
the  vast  assemblage.  The  alternative  of  separation  from 
the  Establishment,  to  which  so  many  ministers  might  speedily 
be  forced,  was  steadily  contemplated,  and  the  first  hint 
thrown  out  of  that  peculiar  method  of  sustaining  them  in 
their  new  positions  which  Dr.  Chalmers  had  already  de- 
signed. He  was  the  first  to  give  up  all  hope  of  a  satisfac- 
tory Parliamentary  adjustment;  he  was  the  first  also  to  busy 
himself  both  with  the  design  and  the  execution  of  the  practi- 
cal measures  required  by  the  approaching  disruption.  This 
meeting  in  Edinburgh  was  followed  up  by  similar  meetings 
all  over  the  country,  in  which  a  spirit  of  equal  energy  and 
resolution  was  manifested.  This  general  attitude  of  deter- 
mination and  preparedness  had  its  temporary  efiect.  The 
threatened  appeal  to  the  Legislature  was  not  persisted  in, 
and  the  Government  made  a  friendly  instead  of  a  hostile 
movement  toward  the  Church.  Taking  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity of  addressing  the  new  Administration,  Commissioners, 
appointed  by  the  Church,  had  waited  on  Sir  Pvobert  Peel, 
and  presented   a   Memorial*  to  the  Government.      Almost 

*  Another  and  counter  Memorial  was  presented  to  the  Government 
by  the  Committee  of  the  Moderate  party,  in  which  the  following  state- 
ments occur  : — "  To  the  principle  of  Non-Intrusion,  holding  that  term 
to  be  synonymous  with  a  right  of  arbitrary  dissent  or  rejection  by  con- 
gregations or  Presbyteries,  the  Memoriahsts  entertain  the  strongest  ob- 
jections, in  whatever  form  or  by  whatever  means  it  may  be  proposed 
to  bring  that  principle  into  practical  operation.  *  =^  *  But,  much  as 
the  Memoralists  deprecate  the  adoption  of  this  'Non  Intrusion'  principle, 
in  any  form  or  to  any  efTect,  they  must  add  the  expression  of  their 
humble  but  very  decided  opinion,  that  of  all  the  modes  yet  proposed  for 
giving  effect  to  the  principle,  the  most  impolitic  and  the  most  mischievous 
is  that  which  concedes  to  the  Church  the  exercise  of  what  is  called 
liberum  arbitrium — a  discretionary  and  irresponsible  power  to  deter- 
mine, not  judicially,  nor  according  to  any  ascertained  rule,  but  arbitra- 
rily in  every  case,  as  to  the  amount  and  character  of  the  popular  feeling 
existing  against  a  presentee,  and  the  weight  that  is  to  be  given  to  it. 
Such  a  measure  appears  to  the  Memorialists  to  be  dangerous  alike  to 


^T.  61.  SIR  GEORGE  SINCLAIR'S  PROPOSAL.  239 

immediately  thereafter  a  proposal  was  made  by  Sir  George 
Sinclair  to  the  Non-Intrusion  Committee  for  effecting  a  final 
adjustment  of  the  question,  by  adding  a  clause,  which  he  had 
drawn  up,  to  the  Bill  of  Lord  Aberdeen.  Understanding 
that  this  clause  recognized  the  right  of  the  Church  Courts 
to  give  effect  to  the  objections  of  the  people,  if  found  to  be 
insuperable,  in  every  case  in  which  they  considered  it  to  be 
their  duty  to  do  so,  the  Committee,  while  carefully  guarding 
themselves  against  a  positive  approval  of  such  a  settlement, 
stated  that  it  was  one  to  which  they  could  conscientiously 
submit.  The  negotiation  originated  by  Sir  George  Sinclair 
had  an  official  character  bestowed  upon  it,  when  Mr.  Bruce 
of  Kennet,  on  the  suggestion  of  Sir  James  Graham,  formally 
submitted  the  following  queries  to  the  Committee: — "In  the 
event  of  a  proposal  coming  from  Her  Majesty's  Government, 
based  on  the  clause  transmitted  by  Sir  George  Sinclair,  and 
sent  by  the  Dean  of  Faculty  to  Lord  Aberdeen,  will  the  Non- 
Intrusion  Committee  appointed  by  the  Assembly  (though 
they  should  prefer  another  mode)  accept  it  as  a  final  settle- 
ment of  the  Non-Intrusion  question  ?"  Retaining  their  first 
idea  of  the  meaning  and  effect  of  the  clause,  the  Committee 
gave  the  same  answer  to  Mr.  Bruce  which  they  had  given 
to  Sir  George  Sinclair.  It  was  understood  that  unless  the 
proposed  settlement  was  carried  through  in  the  session  of 
Parliament  then  sitting,  both  parties  would  be  relieved  from 
their  obligations — the  Government  from  any  obligation  to 
propose,  the  Committee  from  any  obligation  to  accept.  The 
shortness  of  that  session  precluded  any  Government  action  in 

civil  and  religious  liberty.  *  *  ^  The  'spiritual  independence'  which  has 
been  claimed  on  the  pait  of  the  Church  is  essentially  inconsistent  with 
the  first  principles  of  social  order.  *  *  *  New  cases  were  daily  arising ; 
and  no  man  could  tell  how  soon  it  might  become  his  own  personal  duty 
to  choose  between  the  obedience  which  he  had  vowed  to  law  and  con- 
stituted authority  and  submission  to  a  new,  fanciful,  anomalous  princi- 
ple, which  the  Church  has  chosen  to  dignify  with  the  name  of  '  Spirit- 
ual Independence.^  " — See  Memorial  by  the  Constitutional  Committee, 
pp.  5,  25,  40,  41, 


240  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

the  matter,  and  before  the  Parliament  assembled  again  in 
November  a  correspondence  between  the  Dean  of  Faculty 
and  Dr.  Candlish  had  disclosed  a  most  serious  disagreement 
as  to  the  real  significance  of  Sir  George's  clause.  According 
to  the  Dean's  interpretation,  which  mature  reflection  con- 
vinced the  Committee  was  the  true  one,  the  Church  Courts 
would  have  no  liberty  in  any  case  to  give  effect  to  the  dissent 
of  the  congregation,  simply  as  such.  Neither  Lord  Aberdeen 
nor  the  Dean  of  Faculty  looked  upon  the  clause  as  effecting 
any  change  in  this  respect  upon  the  Bill  as  it  stood  originally. 
It  was  its  denial  of  such  liberty  that  led  to  its  rejection  in 
its  earlier,  and  the  same  denial  led  to  its  rejection  in  its 
amended  form.  A  lengthened  explanation  of  the  misunder- 
standing which  had  thus  occurred  was  addressed  by  the 
Committee  to  Sir  James  Graham,  "v^dio,  in  his  reply,  stated, 
"  I  have  no  hesitation  in  stating,  that  had  it  been  explained 
at  the  time  that  the  words  suggested  by  Sir  George  Sinclair 
were  intended  to  bear  the  construction  placed  upon  them  in 
your  letter,  the  proposed  measure  would,  on  that  ground, 
also  have  been  considered  equally  inadmissible."  Upon  the 
negotiation  which  this  letter  closed  we  can  not  now  look 
back  without  admiring  the  generous  and  devoted  zeal  of  Sir 
George  Sinclair,  who  gave  his  days  and  nights  to  bring  it  to 
a  successful  issue  ;  and  whatever  blindness  the  Committee 
may  in  the  first  instance  have  displayed  (and  it  was  a  blind- 
ness in  which  they  had  good  reason  to  believe  that  both  the 
Dean  himself  and  Lord  Aberdeen  participated),*  it  almost 

*  "  I  remember  Sir  George  Sinclair  reporting  to  us  Mr.  Hope's  ad- 
mission that  the  Bill,  as  amended,  would  enable  Church  Courts  '  to 
enforce  the  Veto  in  any  particular  instance  if  they  chose;'  although  I 
am  inclined  to  believe,  from  what  will  afterward  be  stated,  that  this 
admission  must  have  been  made  in  a  very  limited  and  qualified  accepta- 
tion of  that  phrase,  or  that  Sir  George  had  misapprehended  Mr.  Hope.  It 
appears  that  Mr.  Hope's  representation  was  successful  in  persuading 
Lord  Aberdeen  to  change  his  mind.  His  Lordship  consented  to  the  in- 
troduction of  Sir  George  Sinclair's  clause,  of  which  he  had  previously 
said  that  it  would  '  make  the  appeal  of  the  Veto  Law  illusory.''  " — Narra- 
tive relating  to  certain  recent  Negotiations,  SfC,  by  Dr.  Candlish,  pp.  9,  10. 


JET,  6L  LETTERS  TO  SIR  GEORGE  SINCLAIR.  241 

atones  for  that  error,  that  we  can  now  point  to  it  as  a  proof 
how  anxious  the  Church  was  to  obtain  a  settlement,  and 
how  willing  she  would  have  been  to  accede  to  any  arrange- 
ment under  which,  in  any  form,  the  principle  of  Non-Intru- 
sion could  have  been  preserved.  Dr.  Chalmers  took  no  part 
in  these  negotiations  which  led  to  so  unhappy  an  issue.  The 
following  extracts  from  letters  addressed  during  this  period  to 
Sir  George  Sinclair,  of  M'hose  unwearied  and  disinterested 
services  he  entertained  the  warmest  admiration,  will  indicate 
not  only  how  hopeless  he  was  of  any  satisfactory  result 
arising  out  of  them,  but  how  engaged  his  thoughts  were 
with  ulterior  prospects  already  opening  to  his  view. 

"Burntisland,  August  I6th,  1841 
"  Dear  Sir  George — What  you  propose  is  substantially 
an  acquiescence  in  Lord  Aberdeen's  Bill. 

"  Be  assured  that  it  was  in  perfect  good  faith  I  told  his 
Lordship,  more  than  twelve  months  ago,  that  we  could  not 
conscientiously  minister  in  a  Church  placed  under  the  fetters 
and  provisions  of  such  a  legislation  as  he  had  prepared  for  us. 
Nothing  has  occurred  since  to  alter  this  feeling,  but  every 
thing  to  strengthen  and  confirm  it.  Not  the  outrage  at 
Marnoch — not  the  harassing  interference  of  the  Civil  Courts, 
and  not,  most  certainly,  the  hostile  declarations  of  public 
and  parhamentary  men,  backed  thquS^h  they  now  are  by  a 
majority,  which  seems  to  have  given  fresh  confidence  to  our 
adversaries,  and  emboldened  them  to  brandish  over  our  heads 
the  menace  and  terror  of  our  approaching  overthrow.  This 
last  experiment  will  be  as  fruitless  as  any  of  the  former  ones. 
On  this  question  we  are  now  unchanged,  and  I  hope  un- 
changeable. We  stand  on  the  ground  of  principle  ;  nor  can 
I  image  a  greater  infatuation  than  the  incredulity  of  those 
who  will  not  believe  that  from  that  ground  we  shall  never 
recede,  whatever  be  the  damages  or  the  deprivations  which 
they  might  purpose  to  lay  upon  us. 

"I  can  well  understand  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  is 

VOL     TV  — L 


242  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

dear  to  many  whose  views  are  opposite  to  our  own  in  the 
present  controversy.  It  might  well  be  dear  to  them,  as  the 
only  palladium  of  true  Conservatism  in  the  land,  and  the 
only  antagonist  force  to  the  Chartism  and  the  Socialism,  and 
the  lawless  spirit  of  insubordination,  against  which,  when 
once  they  have  come  to  a  head,  all  the  Parliamentary  ma- 
jorities, which  now  give  so  delusive  a  confidence  to  the  upper 
classes  of  society,  will  prove  but  a  feeble  and  unavailing  de- 
fense in  the  hour  of  trial.  The  Church  is  dear  to  us  for 
these  reasons  also,  but  infinitely  dearer  as  an  instrument  of 
Christian  good  to  the  people,  and  still  more  as  the  instrument 
put  into  our  hands  with  directions  how  to  use  it,  by  the 
great  Author  and  Finisher  of  our  faith.  By  these  directions 
we  mean  to  abide  ;  nor  will  we  consent  to  be  the  ministers 
of  a  Church  subject  to  any  power  on  earth  which  shall  in- 
termeddle with  the  functions  of  that  distinct  ecclesiastical 
government  which  is  placed  by  Him  who  is  the  head  of  all 
authority  and  power,  in  the  hands  of  distinct  office-bearers. 
"  I  conclude  with  an  earnest  wish  that  your  friends  might 
have  their  eyes  opened  at  length  to  the  true  wisdom  of  this 
question.  I  can  see  no  other  way  of  its  pacific  settlement 
than  by  passing  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  Bill,  and  leaving  us  to 
deal  with  our  own  refractory  ministers  according  to  the  usages 
which,  since  the  last  Revolution  in  this  country,  have  never 
been  invaded.  Never,  I  will  venture  to  say,  was  a  fairer 
prospect  of  usefulness  overcast  than  that  which  lay  before  the 
Church  of  Scotland  at  the  time  that  the  civil  authorities  so 
cruelly  and  unconstitutionally  interfered  with  her. — I  ever 
am,  dear  Sir  George,  yours  most  respectfully  and  truly, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"Burntisland,  September  21th,  1841. 
"  My  dear  Sir  George — You  know  that  I  have  retired 
from  all  further  public  or  practical  management  of  the  ques- 
tion.     The  truth  is,  that  I  reserve  myself  for  one  emergency 
Should  there  be  a  disruption  of  the  Church  I  shall  feel  it  my 


^T.  61.  LETTERS  TO  SIR  GEORGE  SINCLAIR.  243 

duty  to  help  forward  the  operations  of  a  great  home  mission, 
which  I  have  no  doubt  could  take  full  possession  of  the  coun- 
try in  a  very  few  months.  And  looking  to  the  Christian  in- 
terests of  Scotland,  I  believe  that  more  good  could  be  done 
by  such  an  instrumentality  than  by  an  Established  Church 
exposed  to  such  interferences  as  those  of  the  Court  of  Session 
for  the  last  few  years.  It  is  not  only  of  their  intromissions 
with  the  appointment  of  ministers  that  I  complain.  Their 
decisions  respecting  the  collections  of  the  new  churches  and 
the  quoad  sacra  parishes  are  both  most  intolerable  fetters  on 
the  energies  of  a  Church  acting  with  a  view  to  the  spread 
of  Christian  education  among  all  classes  of  the  people.  I 
do  not  give  up  my  views  on  the  mighty  good  of  a  religious 
Establishment,  but  it  is  a  good  more  than  neutralized  should 
the  Establishment  be  so  hampered  and  restricted  as  many 
would  wish  it  to  be,  who  have  really  never  studied  the  ques- 
tion of  what  the  best  method  is  for  spreading  abroad  that 
education  of  principle  which  will  prove  the  only  counter- 
active not  to  irreligion  only,  but  to  vice  and  anarchy  and 
socialism,  and  the  whole  tribe  of  those  moral  and  political 
disorders  which  are  now  in  busy  fermentation  all  over  the 
land. 

Heaven  grant  that  the  eyes  of  Sir  Robert  may  be  opened 
to  see  that  there  is  a  country  as  well  as  a  House  of  Com- 
mons.— I  am,  dear  Sir  George,  yours  most  gratefully,  and 
with  great  regard,  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  Sir  George  Sinclair,  Barouet." 

"  Edinburgh,  November  20th,  1841. 
"  My  dear  Sir  George — Suffer  me  to  express  my  fears 
that  you  are  deceived  in  supposing  it  to  be  the  purpose  of 
those  who  have  adopted  your  formula,  to  give  us  an  un- 
shackled libentm  arbitrium.  They  lay  a  most  important 
exception  on  the  liberutn  arhitrinin,  nay,  the  very  exception 
that  runs  the  most  counter  of  any  to  an  oft-repeated  and  great 
constitutional  principle  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 


244  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 


"  You  seem  not  aware  that  I  am  not  a  member  of  the 
Non-Intrusion  Committee.  It  is  indispensable  to  my  pre- 
servation that  I  should  retire  from  all  public  business  ;  nor 
do  I  mean  to  mix  with  it,  unless  in  the  event  of  a  disruption, 
which,  should  an  entire  liberum  arbitrium  be  denied  to  us, 
it  is  my  firm  conviction  will  and  ought  to  take  place.  I 
have  been  studying  a  good  deal  the  economy  of  our  Non- 
Erastian  Church  when  severed  from  the  State  and  its  en- 
dowments— an  event  which  I  would  do  much  to  avert — but 
which,  if  inevitable,  we  ought  to  be  prepared  for.  I  do  not 
participate  in  your  fears  of  an  extinction  even  for  our  most 
remote  parishes.  And  the  noble  resolution  of  the  town  min- 
isters, to  share  equally  with  their  country  brethren,  from  a 
common  fund  raised  for  the  general  behoof  of  the  ejected 
ministers,  has  greatly  brightened  my  anticipations  of  a  great 
and  glorious  result,  should  the  Government  cast  us  off.  There 
are  thousands  in  the  middle  ranks  who  will  let  down  their 
establishments  rather  than  that  our  Church  should  go  to 
wreck  from  the  want  of  endowments  ;  and  an  extensive  or- 
ganization for  the  small  weekly  offerings  of  our  people,  which 
I  should  feel  it  my  duty  to  promote  to  the  uttermost,  will, 
I  fondly  hope,  enable  us  not  only  to  maintain  the  services  of 
all  our  ejected  ministers,  but  over  and  above  to  extend  and 
multiply  our  exertions,  so  as  to  meet  the  necessities  of  all  our 
families. — I  have  the  honor  to  be,  dear  Sir  George,  yours 
most  respectfully,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"  Edinbukgh,  December  Uh,  1841. 
**  My  dear  Sir  George — *  *  *  I  conclude  with  noticing 
as  briefly  as  possible  your  remarks  on  my  consistency  :  1. 
You  speak  of  my  former  avowed  preference  for  a  National 
Establishment,  reminding  me  of  what  you  call  my  own 
theory.  Now,  in  my  London  Lectures,  in  my  Church  Ex- 
tension Addresses,  in  all  my  controversies  with  the  Volun- 
taries, in  my  numerous  writings  for  twenty  years  back,  the 
spiritual  independence  of  the  Church  has  been  ever  brought 


^T.  61.  LETTERS  TO  SIR  GEORGE  SINCLAIR.  245 

prominently  forward  as  an  indispensable  part  of  that  theory, 
and  I  have  uniformly  stated,  that  the  least  violation  of  that 
independence  in  return  for  a  State  Endowment  was  enough 
to  convert  a  Church  Establishment  into  a  moral  nuisance. 
It  is  a  little  too  much,  that  after  the  Conservatives  had  ac- 
cepted with  thankfulness  my  defense  of  National  Establish- 
ments, they  should  now  propose  to  take  away  from  me  the 
benefit  of  their  main  vindication  ;  or  think  that  an  advocacy 
given  to  a  National  Church,  solely  for  the  sake  of  its  relig- 
ious and  moral  benefits  to  the  population,  should  still  be  con- 
tinued, after  they  shall  have  converted  it  from  an  engine  of 
Christian  usefulness  into  a  mere  congeries  of  offices,  by  which 
to  uphold  the  influence  of  patrons  and  subserve  the  politics 
or  the  views  of  a  worthless  partisanship. 

"  But  (2.)  you  tell  me  of  my  views  on  the  impotency  of 
Voluntaryism.  May  I  beg  your  perusal  of  my  Third  London 
Lecture  on  the  Distinction  between  Voluntaryism  ab  intra 
and  Voluntaryism  ah  extra.  There  is  a  perfect  identity  of 
principle  between  the  latter  and  a  National  Establishment.  I 
shall  ever  regret  the  necessity  of  a  separation  from  the  State. 
But  if  driven  to  it  by  principle,  it  is  a  sacrifice  which  must 
and  ought  to  be  made.  I  say  so,  not  in  the  spirit  of  menace, 
or  for  the  purpose  of  terrifying  bull-headed  Toryism  out  of 
any  of  its  inveteracies,  but  simply  to  let  you  know,  that  I  for 
one  shall  feel  it  my  duty  to  draw  both  on  the  middle  and 
lower  ranks,  indefinitely,  in  order  to  repair,  and  I  confidently 
hope,  to  overpass,  the  mischief  which  I  fear  that  our  enemies, 
in  the  obstinacy  of  their  miserable  blindness,  are  preparing 
for  our  land. — Ever  believe  me,  my  dear  Sir  George,  yours 
with  great  esteem  and  regard, 

"Thomas  Chalmers." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  OUTER  AND  INNER  HISTORY— PRIVATE  JOURNALS 
OF  1840-41— HOR^  BIBLIC^E  QUOTIDIAN.^— HOR^  BI- 
BLICiE  SABBATIC^. 

The  events  in  which  Dr.  Chalmers  mingled,  and  which 
he  helped  so  much  to  mould,  were  far  from  engrossing  his 
thoughts.  The  part  he  took  in  them  was  in  fact  the  product 
of  those  deeper  convictions  which  rested  upon  the  unseen  and 
enduring  objects  of  faith.  Behind  the  outer  history  of  his  life 
there  lay  that  inner  spiritual  history  which  made  the  other 
what  it  was.  His  correspondence,  his  speeches,  his  published 
writings,  and  his  public  acts,  which  furnish  such  ample  ma- 
terials for  unfolding  the  one  history,  are  absolutely  barren  as 
to  the  other.  We  know  of  no  other  individual  of  the  same 
force  and  breadth  of  Christian  character,  who,  in  all  his  con- 
verse, public  and  private,  with  his  fellow-men,  spoke  so  little 
of  himself,  or  afforded  such  slender  means  of  information  as 
to  his  own  spiritual  condition  and  progress,  and  yet  it  would 
be  difficult  to  name  another  of  whose  deeper  religious  expe- 
rience we  have  so  full  and  so  trustworthy  a  record.  We  owe 
this  to  the  openness  and  perfect  truthfulness  of  his  private 
Journal.  The  strict  reserve  which  he  observed  in  his  commu- 
nications with  others  he  entirely  laid  aside  when  communing 
with  his  own  heart,  the  fullness  of  the  one  disclosure  more 
than  atoning  for  the  stintedness  of  the  other.  The  very  breaks 
and  gaps,  the  compressed  or  the  expanded  condition  of  his  pri- 
vate Journal,  when  studied  in  connection  with  his  external 
occupations  during  different  periods,  are  themselves  instruct- 
ive. Judged  of  in  this  way,  the  year  1840  formed  a  marked 
epoch  in  his  spiritual  life,  as  exhibiting  the  commencement 


JET.  60.  THE  OUTER  AND  INNER  HISTORY.  247 


of  that  softening,  refining,  elevating  process  which,  ripening 
to  perfection,  threw  such  a  pure  and  mellow  light  of  piety 
around  his  closing  years — a  light  whose  chastened  lustre  was 
perceived  and  felt  even  by  those  who  saw  not  into  the  place 
of  its  birth.  We  date  the  beginning  of  this  process  from  the 
close  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  correspondence  with  Lord  Aberdeen, 
from  the  time  when  his  hope  failed  him  of  any  peaceful  set- 
tlement of  the  Church  conflict.  Being  constrained  to  face 
painful  and  unexpected  emergencies,  he  threw  himself  for 
guidance  and  support  upon  the  great  principles  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  It  was  thus  that  the  darker  the  prospect  became, 
the  singler  became  his  eye — the  greater  the  danger,  the 
stronger  his  faith — the  weaker  his  trust  in  men,  the  firmer 
his  reliance  upon  God.  We  should  not,  perhaps,  be  pardoned 
by  general  readers,  did  we  interrupt  our  narrative  by  exhib- 
iting in  full  the  evidence  of  this  striking  fact ;  but  we  would 
violate  our  own  convictions  did  we  not  present  a  few  ex- 
tracts from  the  Journals  of  1840  and  1841. 

''March  17th,  1840. — Entered  the  seventh  decade  of  my 
life.  I  have  looked  long  at  this  birth-day  as  a  great  moral 
and  spiritual  epoch.  My  God,  enable  me  by  prayer  and  per- 
formance to  make  it  good.  Quite  sure  that  the  acceptance 
of  Christ,  with  a  full  reliance  on  Him  and  the  confident  ap- 
propriation of  His  righteousness,  is  the  transition  step  to  a 
life  of  happy  and  prosperous  obedience.  O  my  God,  give 
me  to  hold  this  fast,  and  to  realize  by  it  a  present  salvation 
— the  light  and  liberty  and  enlargement  of  one  of  thine  own 
children.  O  that  my  heart  were  a  fountain  of  gracious 
things,  which  might  flow  out  with  gracious  influence  on  the 
hearts  of  my  acquaintances,  and  more  particularly  of  the 
members  of  my  family. 

"  March  28th. — Sadly  exercised  with  adverse  tidings 
from  London  anent  the  Church  ;  and  all  that  is  heavenly 
takes  flight  by  giving  way  to  other  themes. 

"  April  1st. — To-day  there  is  the  opening  of  a  great  hope 
in  Church  matters.      I  long  for  my  own  deliverance  from 


248  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

the  turmoils  of  public  life.  I  feel  somewhat  the  advantage 
which  a  sally  of  my  own  has  given  to  a  hostile  multitude 
against  me,  and  yet  I  am  supported  in  a  way  that  is  mar- 
velous under  every  visitation.  O  do  Thou,  the  very  God 
of  peace,  sanctify  me  wholly,  and  enable  me  to  cut  off  the 
right  hand  or  pluck  out  the  right  eye.  Deliver  me  from  the 
woe  of  those  by  whom  offenses  come  ;  save  me  from  the  sin 
that  doth  most  easily  beset  me,  and,  above  all,  from  the 
guilt  of  hurting  the  souls  of  others.  Keep  my  heart  in  the 
love  of  thyself,  and  enable  me  to  keep  it  with  all  diligence. 
Enable  me  to  bid  away  all  thoughts  of  evil  and  vanity,  and 
to  keep  myself  holy  in  soul  and  spirit  and  body,  which  are 
the  Lord's. — Amen,  and  amen. 

"  A2Jril  2d. — An  utter  prostration  of  spirit  from  the 
speech  of  Lord  Aberdeen. 

"  April  Sd. — Pwecovered  my  spirits,  but  not  my  spirit- 
uality. 

"  April  4:th. — Came  over  to  Burntisland. — O  my  God,  let 
a  quiet  withdrawment  from  Edinburgh  recall  to  this  earthly 
soul  its  departed  godliness. 

"  April  13th. — Useless  expenditure  of  thought  and  feeling 
in  anticipations  not  afterward  realized.  Events  are  God's. 
Relieved  by  Lord  Aberdeen  taking  an  independent  and  irre- 
sponsible charge. 

"  Ajwil  1 5th. — O  for  quiet  I  Great  need  of  repose.  Gleams, 
too,  of  right  and  religious  feeling.  Think  of  my  creatureship, 
but  not  habitually,  not  closely  enough.  What  a  revolution 
would  it  be  if  I  had  just  an  adequate  and  practical  sense  of 
the  God  who  made  me  !  The  very  sense  of  being  made  by 
another,  how  it  should  annihilate  the  sovereignty  of  self — 
how  it  should  subordinate  and  keep  in  check  the  wayward- 
ness of  one's  own  will.  What  hast  thou,  O  man,  that  thou 
didst  not  receive  ? 

''April  16th. — A  glorious  day,  and  had  great  enjoyment 
on  the  coast  with  my  children.  O  that  I  could  associate 
God  with  all  that  is  visible  and  created.      Began  a  sermon 


MT.  60.  JOURNAL.  ■  249 

on  Rom.  x.  6—9.  Should  begin  every  new  thing  with 
prayer. 

''  Api'il  17th. — Growing  distaste  for  the  burdens  of  pubHc 
business.  Pray  for  wisdom  amid  the  manifold  difficulties  of 
my  position.  Visit  me,  O  God,  with  light  and  love  from 
thy  sanctuary. 

"  A2yril  18th. — More  of  study  than  usual ;  but  I  am  not 
making  the  strenuous  and  decided  efforts  to  be  spiritual 
which  I  wished  and  anticipated,  and  I  neglect  certain  means 
of  spirituality,  such  as  the  avoidance  of  certain  thoughts  that 
stir  up  affections  opposite  to  the  love  of  the  Father.  Might 
make  a  vast  deal  more,  too,  of  my  solitary  walks  ;  and  to 
remove  a  great  practical  barrier  in  the  way  of  religious  con- 
templation, let  me  assume  my  personal  interest  in  the  prom- 
ises  of  the  Gospel,  and  hold  fast  my  confidence  therein.  I 
feel  sure  that  I  would  recur  all  the  more  hopefully,  and 
therefore  all  the  more  fondly  and  frequently,  to  the  great 
things  of  faith,  if  I  but  knew  the  things  which  are  freely 
given  to  us  of  God.  It  is  the  imagination  of  an  impractica- 
ble gulf  betwixt  us  which  keeps  me  at  a  distance  from  Him 
— a  distance  that  would  be  overcome  if  I  could  but  habitually 
and  believingly  look  at  the  open  highway  of  communication 
along  which  there  is  perfect  liberty  of  access  ibr  the  guiltiest 
of  us  all.  Called  at  Rose-End  Castle  ;  and  how  little  is 
the  sense  of  the  immortality  of  others  present  with  me  when 
in  converse  with  the  partakers  of  my  own  imperishable 
nature. 

"  Sunday,  19th.— Much  weighted  withpubHc  difficulties. 
A  great  infusion  of  religious  thought  and  feeling,  too. 

u  April  20th. — Began  my  first  waking  minutes  with  a 
confident  hold  on  Christ  as  my  Saviour.  A  day  of  great 
quietness. 

"April  21st. — Let  the  laying  hold  of  Christ  as  my 
propitiation  be  the  unvarying  initial  act  of  every  morning. 
Very  quiet  all  this  day  ;  yet  not  in  a  particularly  religious 
frame.      I  fancy  a  swimming  in  my  head,  and  am  certain 


250  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

that  ray  execution  is  greatly  short  of  my  conception  and  my 
aim  in  the  composition  of  the  sermon  now  on  hand.  This 
occasions  a  perpetual  strain.  Let  me  devolve  this  and  all 
other  things  on  God.  Enable  me  to  render  the  doctrine  of 
free  salvation  clearly  and  impressively.  But,  O  how  true 
that  the  faith  of  others  is  given  not  through  the  wisdom  of 
words,  but  by  the  power  of  God. 

"  April  24.th. — Much  exercised  by  the  conflicting  Church 
politics  around  me,  and  feel  the  earthliness  of  these  engross- 
ments. O  that  I  exercised  myself  more  unto  godliness,  and 
could  maintain  a  godly  frame  all  the  day  long. 

^'  April  29th. — A  general  want  of  godliness,  and  a  weight 
upon  my  spirit  in  the  prospect  of  approaching  controversies. 
I  pray  for  light  and  direction  from  on  high.  Assembly  pre- 
parations. 

"  Airril  oOth. — Occasional  heaviness  ;  yet  well  upon  the 
whole.  A  most  enjoyable  day,  and  delighted  myself  with 
two  solitary  rounds.  Have  the  feelings  and  aspirations  of 
piety,  but  must  be  more  confident  and  cheerful  in  Christ — 
rejoice  in  the  Lord  alway. 

"  3Iaij  1st. — What  a  sad  general  want  of  realization  as  to 
the  things  of  faith  and  eternity.  Can  luxuriate  among  the 
beauties  of  creation.  O  Creator  of  all,  manifest  thy  glory 
to  my  dark  and  dormant  faculties,  possess  me  with  a  sense 
of  thyself,  forgive  the  waywardness  of  my  thoughts  and  in- 
clinations, and  give  me  to  feel  the  controlling  influence  of  thy 
presence  and  will  all  the  day  long. 

"  Sunday,  May  3d. — Delighted  with  '  TrefTry  on  the 
Sonship  of  Christ.'  Luxuriate  here  in  Sabbath  quiet.  O 
my  God,  purify,  refine,  and  exalt  me  more  and  more.  Hear 
imperfectly  in  church,  and  my  attention  wanders  among  the 
engrossing  topics  of  the  present  time.  I  most  earnestly  pray 
for  a  wisdom  and  a  spirit  adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
present  time. 

"  3Iay  Ath. — Much  weighted  with  Church  matters,  and 
the  report  from  London  of  Lord  Aberdeen's  vacillations. 


mr.  60.  JOURNAL.  251 

"  May  6th. — Sadly  agitated  about  Church  matters,  and 
things  looking  very  doubtful.  But  saddest  of  all  is  the 
distress  and  decay  of  religious  feeling,  and  the  want  of  a 
system  of  practical  self-discipline. — O  my  God,  enable  me 
to  wait  upon  thee  without  distraction  ;  and  I  pray  for  wisdom 
to  clear  my  way  through  the  difficulties  by  which  I  am  en- 
compassed. My  retrospects  of  the  day  that  is  past  are  ex- 
ceedingly dim  ;  and  the  work  of  self-examination  therefore,  in 
that  proportion,  unsatisfactory.    Search  me  and  try  me,  O  God. 

"  3Iay  8th. — Carried  by  news  from  London,  reports  from 
Edinburgh,  &c.  Teach  me  the  lesson,  O  Heavenly  Father,  to 
be  still  and  know  that  thou  art  God.     Things  are  thickening. 

"  Sunday  Jti?te  1th. — My  eternity  is  at  stake,  and  the 
great  adversary  is  plying  me  with  a  fresh  and  formidable 
temptation.  Another  approaching  controversy,  too,  which 
may  require  all  wisdom.  O  for  holiness  and  charity.  Take 
pity  on  me,  O  God,  a  miserable  offender. 

"  June  &th. — Sadly  engrossed  with  the  Dean  of  Faculty's 
charge  against  me.^  There  are,  besides,  fiery  darts  from 
the  adversary.      My  God,  uphold  me  I 

*'  Ji^ne  16th. — A  dreary  interval,  throughout  which  the 
influences  of  God's  Word  have  been  choked  and  overborne 
by  the  thorns  of  care  and  controversy.  Let  me  now  resume 
the  moral  and  spiritual  culture  which  has  been  so  woefully 
interrupted. 

"  Sunday,  June  21st. — Have  not  yet  recovered  the  shock 
of  Lord  Aberdeen's  foul  attack  on  me  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
May  I  live  henceforth  in  the  perpetual  sunshine  of  God's 
reconciled  countenance.  May  I  experience  the  sanctifying 
power  of  such  a  habit.  Save  me,  save  me,  O  God,  from 
the  untoward  imaginations  which  disquiet  and  inflame  me, 
warring  against  my  soul,  and  engrossing  my  thoughts,  to  the 
utter  exclusion  of  the  things  which  make  for  holiness  and 
peace. 

««  Ju?ie  24:th. — O  my  God,  direct  me  now  to  thyself. 
*  See  ante.  p.  173. 


252  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

Transfer  my  thoughts  to  the  things  that  are  above.  Give 
me  wisdom  among  the  trials  and  difficulties  which  surround 
me.  Hide  me  under  the  covert  of  thy  wings,  and  let  the 
menaces  which  overhang  the  country  and  the  Church  pass 
away  from  them  both. 

"  Sunday,  July  5ih. — A  letter  yesternight  from  Dr. 
Gordon,  inclosing  one  from  Lord  Aberdeen,  which  will  re- 
quire a  strenuous  exercise  both  of  wisdom  and  charity. "* 
My  God,  guide  and  govern  all  my  movements.  It  is  high 
time  now  to  be  seeking  the  pearl  of  great  price,  and  for  this 
let  there  be  an  intent  looking  unto  Jesus — a  strong  and 
simple  faith  in  Him — the  love  that  cleaves  to  Him — the 
friendship  for  Him  that  will  do  whatsoever  He  commandeth. 
I  pray  for  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit — for  the  mortification  of 
the  flesh,  and  altogether  for  the  establishment  of  my  under- 
standing in  the  doctrine  of  salvation,  and  of  my  feet  in  the 
way  of  new  obedience.  Give  me,  O  Lord,  to  be  spiritually- 
minded,  and  then  shall  I  have  hfe  and  peace.  May  I  know 
what  it  is  to  exercise  myself  unto  godliness.  Is  it  not  wrong 
to  countenance  by  the  slightest  semblance  of  an  approxima- 
tion the  Sabbath  liberties  that  are  taken  in  this  neighbor- 
hood ?  May  I  hope  from  this  time  forward  to  have  materials 
for  a  more  full  and  regular  spiritual  history  than  I  have 
kept  hitherto. 

"  Ju7ie  6tJt,. — Began  the  day  with  a  distinct  act  of  confi- 
dence ;  but  should  renew  it  through  the  day,  and  see,  on  the 
constant  repetition  and  habit  of  it,  whether  a  blessing  will 
not  follow,  so  as  that  Christ  may  see  in  me  of  the  travail  of 
His  soul. 

"  July  1th. — Began  again  with  an  act  of  confidence  ;  but 
why  not  a  perennial  confidence  in  the  Saviour  ?  And  every 
human  creature  I  meet  with  supplies  an  object  and  occasion 
for  the  second  law.  Give  me,  O  Lord,  as  fruits  of  thy  Spirit, 
love  and  long-suffering. 

"  July  Sth I  have  recurred  more  frequently  to  the  act- 

=*  See  ante,  p.  175. 


MT.  60.  JOURNAL.  253 

ings  of  faith  in  Christ,  and  I  can  have  no  doubt  of  this  being 
the  habit  that  is  to  bring  me  right.  Let  me  realize  Him  as 
a  person  who  knows  my  thoughts,  and  from  whom  I  may 
ask  for  all  that  is  needful  to  a  life  of  godliness.  O  give  me 
to  experience  the  blessed  effect  of  thus  abiding  in  Him.  Give 
me  tokens  for  good.  Make  me  sensible  of  real  answers  to 
actual  requests,  as  the  evidences  of  an  interchange  between 
myself  on  earth  and  my  Saviour  in  Heaven. 

"  July  9th. — Going  on  leisurely,  I  think  feebly,  with,  I 
hope,  my  last  controversial  pamphlet  on  the  Church  question. 
Have  much  to  learn,  and  desire  to  grow  in  the  practical  and 
experimental  knowledge  of  Christ. 

"  July  IQth. — O  my  God,  elevate  and  inspire  me.  Give 
me  to  feel  the  operation  of  the  first  law  in  my  heart,  raising 
my  affections  to  thyself,  and  of  the  second  law,  diffusing  the 
regards  of  kindness  on  all  around  me.  What  a  selfish  and 
ungodly  creature  I  naturally  am.  Refine  and  exalt  my  aims 
and  my  purposes,  O  God,  and  let  me  realize  the  experience 
of  a  practical  Christianity. 

•'  July  11th. — Why  at  any  time  the  heaviness  of  ennui? 
Should  God  be  a  weariness  or  a  wilderness  to  His  own  crea- 
tures ? 

''July  loth. — Luxuriated  over  the  beauties  of  the  land- 
scape. 

"  July  15th. — Hurt  by  a  report  in  the  '  Witness'  of  Lord 
Aberdeen's  saying  in  the  House,  that  after  having  brought 
the  Church  into  jeopardy,  I  had  left  them  to  find  their  way 
out  of  it  as  they  could.  Recovered  from  this.  Desire  to  roll 
over  all  upon  God. 

"  Sunday  26th. — Give  me,  O  Lord,  the  power  of  ap- 
plication to  spiritual  subjects.  Give  me  a  firm  and  tangible 
hold  of  spiritual  things.  Let  me  know  what  it  is  to  realize 
experimental  religion.  O  may  it  be  my  daily  task,  my  hourly 
exercise,  my  perennial  enjoyment. 

"  Sunday,  August  oOth. — My  engrossments  now  are  with 
Pauperism  and  the  British  Association.      I  have  had  miser- 


254  •     MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1840. 

ably  little  experience  of  prayer  being  the  aliment  of  the  di- 
vine life,  but  I  think  that  now  and  previously  I  have  expe- 
rienced its  efficacy  in  shielding  me  from  temptation.  Thou 
knowest,  O  God,  how  frail  I  am.  O  give  me  the  eirtyvcjdOLq 
as  well  as  the  yvC)GL<; — that  knowledge  of  the  Father  and 
the  Son  which  amounts  to  fellowship  with  both. 

''October  19th. — A  dreary  interval ;  British  Association  ; 
Greenock  lectureship.  My  God,  strengthen,  stablish,  settle 
me.      Let  me  resume  my  journal. 

''  ISiOvemher  9th. — Yesterday  being  Sabbath,  I  employed 
in  part,  as  usual,  in  the  perusal  of  difficult  theology,  when  I 
was  visited  by  a  sense  of  the  injunction — '  Thou  shalt  not  do 
any  work.'  On  that  day  let  me  rest,  and  let  it  be  a  day 
not  of  study,  but  of  sentiment  and  of  sentiment  allied  with  re- 
pose, such  as  resting  in  God,  having  peace  and  joy  in  believ- 
ing, waiting  on  God,  rejoicing  in  hope,  patient  under  injuries 
or  in  any  sort  of  tribulation. — O  grant  that  by  a  right  use 
of  the  weekly  Sabbath  my  old  age  may  be  mellowed  into  the 
Sabbath  of  my  life  ;  and  let  me  experience  that  in  the  quiet- 
ness and  confidence  of  the  seventh  day  there  is  a  recruiting  of 
strength  for  the  duties  and  the  exercises  of  the  other  six. 

"  Sunday,  Novemhcr  15th. — My  Sabbatical  meditations 
to-day  have  achieved  for  me  an  exemption  from  evil  thoughts. 
I  desire  to  watch  as  well  as  pray.  Assist  me,  O  God,  in 
the  work  of  holding  communion  with  thyself.  Save  me  from 
my  besetting  sins.  Set  me  on  a  real  work  of  preparation. 
I  feel  the  advantage  of  a  holy  rest — the  good  and  wisdom  of 
the  Sabbath  hour.  I  pray  for  the  faith  of  immortality. 
Felt  to-day  the  advantage  of  a  simple  faith  in  the  simple 
statements  of  God's  Word. 

"  Sunday,  22d. — Suffered  myself  to  be  annoyed  by  the 
perversities  to  which  I  am  exposed  on  the  subject  of  Pauper- 
ism. Let  me  rise  to  the  more  serene  and  elevated  panorama 
of  religion. — O  my  God,  let  me  be  clothed  with  humility  and 
experience  the  consequent  grace  which  thou  hast  promised  to 
bestow. 


^T.  60.  JOURNAL.  255 

"Sunday,  January  10th,  1841. — Give  me  a  constant 
sense  of  danger,  and  along  with  this  of  entire  diffidence  in 
myself,  and  so  of  perpetual  dependence  on  Thee.  Lead  me 
to  the  Rock  that  is  higher  than  T.  I  would  renounce  the 
devil,  the  world,  and  the  flesh  ;  and  to  make  this  good,  I  would 
live  a  life  of  faith  in  thine  own  Son.  O  may  His  power  rest 
upon  me  ;  and  agreeably  to  what  I  heard  this  day,  may  I 
look  on  all  my  sins  as  proceeding  from  myself,  while  naught 
but  the  grace  which  dispenses  all  good  and  perfect  gifts  Com- 
eth down  from  the  sanctuary  that  is  above.  Let  me  not  say, 
then,  that  I  am  tempted  of  God,  when  the  enticement  is  felt 
of  my  own  hurtful  and  foolish  lusts.  Let  me  make  escape 
from  this  by  fleeing  from  myself,  and  fleeing  for  refuge  not 
merely  to  the  hope,  but  to  the  strength  and  life  which  are  laid 
up  for  me  with  Christ  in  God.  I  pray  for  the  crucifixion  of 
the  flesh — for  the  mortification  of  the  body  through  the  spirit 
— for  the  death  of  the  old  man — for  the  peace  and  grace  of  a 
spiritual  resurrection.  O  for  the  spirit  of  glory  and  of  God, 
that  with  the  new-born  energies  of  the  divine,  I  might  be  ena- 
bled to  trample  those  vile  affections  of  my  own  worthless  na- 
ture into  dust. 

"  Sunday,  lltli. — Have  practiced  total  abstinence  since 
the  beginning  of  the  year.  My  God,  may  I  experience  the 
life  of  thee  in  my  soul. 

"  January  2Qth. — O  my  God,  give  me  the  language  and 
lofty  spirit  of  him  who  reahzes  eternity,  and  has  enthroned 
thyself  in  his  heart. 

"January  26th. — The  Church  question  drawing  to  a 
crisis;  and  I  desire  to  cast  all  on  God,  with  sirnple  faith  in 
his  message  of  reconciliation. — Give  wisdom  and  grace,  O 
Heavenly  Father,  and  cause  good  to  come  out  of  these  thick- 
ening events  to  our  beloved  land. 

"  Su7iday,  '31st. — Sir  George  Sinclair  called;  and  the 
strong  probability  is,  that  I  may  yet  be  implicated  more  than 
I  like  with  the  Church  question, 

"  Sunday,  February  1th. — Annoyed  with  the  utter  in- 


256  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  181]. 

ertness  and  want  of  agency  for  the  Marnoch  subscrip- 
tion. 

"  February  9th. — Gloomy  accounts  from  London,  and  I 
pray  God  to  strengthen  and  uphold  the  mind  of  our  Church. 

"  Su7ida7j,  14:th. — On  Thursday  met  Mr.  Wood,  and 
suggested  a  clerical  prayer  meeting  on  the  affairs  of  the 
Church. 

"  Sunday,  March  lAth. — The  affairs  of  the  Church 
thickening  ;  and  I  sadly  exercised  by  the  urgencies  that  I 
should  again  mingle  in  the  fray,  to  the  hazard  of  my  health 
and  serious  injury  of  my  literary  undertakings.  I  pray  for 
the  Church,  O  God.      Make  clear  the  path  of  duty. 

"  Sunday,  May  16th. — Was  heavy  when  I  awoke  this 
morning  ;  but  did  experience  relief  and  elevation  by  the  ef- 
fort of  a  simple  faith.  Have  adopted  a  new  system  of  Sun- 
day readings,  confining  myself  to  a  prayerful  reading  of 
Scripture.  Last  Sunday  began  with  John  i.,  and  to-day 
John  ii.  Have  had  two  pleasant,  and,  let  me  hope,  two 
spiritual  Sabbaths,  to  some  degree,  in  consequence.  Was 
much  delighted  by  my  ordinary  Bible  passage  this  morning 
in  1  Sam.  ii. — Hannah's  prayer,  '  For  by  strength  shall  no 
man  prevail.'  Still  very  deficient  in  my  attention  as  a  hear- 
er at  Church,  though  to-day  better  than  usual.  Feel  now 
that  to  be  spiritually-minded  is  life  and  peace — at  least,  of 
this  very  certain,  that  I  shall  have  no  peace  without  it  ;  and 
let  me  hope  that  this  experience  will  shut  me  more  up  to  a 
life  of  religion.  Find  that  sermons  from  the  pulpit  or  chap- 
ters in  the  Bible  which  would  fail  to  interest  me  were  I  only 
bestowing  a  cursory  attention  upon  them,  become  interesting 
when  I  make  an  effort  to  realize  the  objects  of  which  they 
treat.  Familiarize  me,  O  God,  more  and  more  with  the 
things  of  faith  and  eternity. 

"  May  17th. — Can  not  but  remark  how  T  gravitate  to 
ungodliness.  Why  are  my  thoughts,  when  alone  and  not 
studying,  so  little  occupied  with  God  ?  And  O  that  in  com- 
pany I  could  appear  more  for  His  glory.      Assist  me  to  do 


JET.  61.  JOURNAL.  257 

this  in  my  family,  and  let  me  watch  my  opportunities  for 
doing  Christian  good.  O  that  I  could  realize  this  blessed 
sequence — '  I  have  believed,  therefore  have  I  spoken.'  Let 
me  carry  about  with  me  a  distinct  confidence  in  forgiveness 
through  the  blood  of  Christ ;  and  with  earnest  desire  of 
showing  forth  His  praise  and  learning  His  doctrine,  let  me 
try  how  this  confidence  will  work  in  me.  The  fruits  of 
righteousness  so  produced  will  arise  from  the  sense  of  my 
own  nothingness,  and  have  Christ  alone  as  their  origin. 

''May  I9th. — Let  me  guard  my  spirit  from  the  impa- 
tience of  petty  annoyances  ;  and  ever  remember,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Port  Royal  Memoirs,  that  religion  consists  not 
in  the  doing  of  extraordinary  things,  but  in  the  doing  of  com- 
mon things  extraordinarily  well. 

"  May  20th. — A  day  of  peace  ;  but  a  wide  interval  must 
be  filled  up  ere  I  can  record  a  day  of  positive  religion.  Why 
do  I  not  go  forth  both  as  a  forgiven  and  vested  creature — 
forgiven  all  my  trespasses,  vested  with  the  righteousness  of 
Christ?  It  is  only  by  living  up  to  our  privileges  that  we 
can  live  up  to  the  full  measure  of  Christian  perfection. 
There  is  one  temptation  that  I  pray  for  grace  to  overcome. 
I  am  most  sensitively  alive  to  the  disgust  of  certain  pecu- 
liarities in  the  manners  of  the  people  for  whom  I  have  no 
taste,  and  with  whom  I  feel  no  congenial  sympathy.  My 
God,  I  would  press  forward  to  the  triumph  of  charity  in  such 
a  case  as  this.  Enable  me  to  honor  all  men,  to  bear  them 
all  the  regard  which  I  owe  to  immortals,  to  please  not  my- 
self, but  to  take  up  my  cross,  and  make  a  daily  and  hourly 
sacrifice  of  all  my  antipathies  for  their  sake.  O  for  the  long- 
suffering  of  the  gospel  and  the  endurance  of  all  things.  Sol- 
emnized by  the  thought  that  this  is  the  first  day  of  the 
Assembly,  and  pray  for  God's  special  guidance  and  favor  to 
the  Church  of  Scotland.  And  I  furthermore  pray  for  direc- 
tion and  the  spirit  of  wisdom  to  myself,  O  God. 

"  Sunday,  23d. — Had  my  Sabbath  Bible  exercise,  and 
mean  to  persevere  in  it.      The  chapter  of  the  day  was  John 


253  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

iii.  My  chief  thought  was  on  the  efficacy  of  faith  as  apart 
from  conception,  and  faith  too  in  the  naked  word,  either  with 
or  without  a  lively  manifestation  of  the  archetype  :  our  safety 
and  spiritual  health  hanging-  on  the  first;  our  sensible  com- 
fort mainly  depending,  I  should  imagine,  on  the  second.  Let 
me  here  record  my  prayer  to  God  for  sustenance  and  succor 
and  guidance  through  the  fatigues  and  difficulties  of  the 
coming  week  (General  Assembly);  and  O  that  He  would 
lead  me  back  to  this  retreat  in  safety,  and  enable  me  to 
write  of  His  gracious  answer  to  the  voice  of  my  supplications. 
Hide  me  in  thy  pavilion,  O  God,  from  the  strife  of  tongues. 
Give  me  the  preparation  of  the  heart  and  answer  of  the 
mouth.  Cause  my  way  to  please  thee,  that  enemies  might 
be  at  peace.  And,  O  defend  the  Church,  and  bring  her  out 
of  all  her  perils  into  a  haven  of  security  and  quietness.  Let 
me  be  without  carefulness,  rolling  the  whole  burden  of  my 
anxieties  upon  God. 

"  Sunday,  30 th. — On  Monday  crossed  to  Edinburgh. 
Spoke  in  the  Assembly  on  Patronage  on  Tuesday;  away 
from  the  Assembly  all  Wednesday.  Spoke  in  the  Assembly, 
and  moved  the  deposition  of  the  Strathbogie  ministers.  Mrs. 
Chalmers  came  over,  and  found  me  at  my  siesta  in  the  Royal 
Hotel.  She  went  off  to  Castlebank  after  tea,  and  I  returned 
to  bed,  where  I  was  raised  about  twelve  for  the  vote,  but 
was  shut  out.  Present,  however,  at  the  deposition,  and  dis- 
quieted by  a  protest  of  the  Moderates,  which  was,  however, 
withdrawn  next  day.  Have  had  abundant  evidences  of  my 
native  carnality  and  frailty  during  last  week.  My  God,  if 
it  be  thy  blessed  will,  let  me  spend  the  remainder  of  my  days 
in  quiet  study  and  retirement,  with  every  aim  terminating 
in  thee  and  thy  glory,  and  so  in  the  furtherance,  as  thou 
mayest  enable  me,  of  the  Christian  good  of  all  within  my 
sphere,  and  more  especially  in  the  efTectual  preparation  of 
myself  and  my  family  for  heaven.  I  have  to  record  God's 
gracious  answer  to  the  prayer  of  last  Sabbath.  He  has 
mercifully  granted  me  another  Ebenezer ;   and  at  the  same 


^T.  61.  JOURNAL.  259 


time  convinced  me,  through  the  medium  of  my  consciousness 
and  of  its  experimental  findings,  that  I  am  no  longer  fit  for 
the  fatigues  and  turmoils  of  public  life.  Yet  I  would  com- 
mit this  thought  of  my  heart,  and  for  its  establishment,  to 
God,  trusting  in  Him,  and  leaning  not  to  my  own  under- 
standing. And  O  if  it  be  His  blessed  will,  may  I  spend 
my  remaining  days  in  the  retirement  which  I  love  ;  and  let 
it  be  a  retirement  of  peace  and  piety,  and  withal  of  profit  to 
the  souls  of  men. 

"  May  31st. — Rode  to  Colinswell.  There  learned  of  the 
interdict  on  the  Assembly,  indicating  a  new  stage  of  the 
Church's  troubles. 

''June  1st. — Comforted  by  the  Assembly's  resolutions  on 
the  interdict. 

"  Simday,  June  Uh. — This  a  strenuous  Sabbath  of  Bible 
reading,  mixed  with  prayer — a  day  of  faith  rather  than  man- 
ifestation, that  is  to  say,  of  resolute  confidence  in  the  tangi- 
bilities, which  is  surely  better  than  to  walk  in  sparks  of  our 
own  kindling.  Let  me  keep  by  God's  Word  and  by  the 
doing  of  His  Divine  will.  The  chapter  of  this  day  was  John 
v.,  which  I  read  in  connection  with  a  very  great  amount  of 
parallel  Scripture.  The  leading  sentiment  is  the  security  of 
being  in  the  hands  of  Christ,  viewed  as  supreme  in  judgment 
and  power,  yet  the  Saviour.  The  first  chapter  of  Acts,  in 
my  ordinary  reading,  suggested  some  pregnant  thoughts.  The 
Apostles  were  told  that  they  should  not  depart  from  Jeru- 
salem till  they  were  endowed  with  power  from  on  high  ;  and 
neither  should  we  depart  from  the  Bible,  but  give  earnest 
heed  thereto  till  the  day  dawn  and  the  day-star  arise  in  our 
hearts. 

"  /w^e  1th. — Arrested  by  a  sense  of  my  ungodliness  while 
riding.  Prayed  for  living  water,  that  I  might  thirst  no 
more  ;  and  certainly  realized  a  sense  of  my  obligation  to  do 
nothing  and  enjoy  nothing  apart  from  Christ,  which  adhered 
to  me,  and  made  me  feel  how,  by  an  influence  ah  extra, 
such  enlargements  and  enhancements  of  spiritual  manifest- 


260  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 


ation  might  come  upon  me  as  I  have  never  yet  experienced. 
Let  me  pray  and  watch  for  the  Holy  Ghost :  and  mean- 
while, in  the  absence  of  vivid  conception,  let  me  maintain  a 
resolute  belief  in  God's  Word,  and  yield  myself  to  the  felt 
obligation  of  every  plain  and  practical  duty.      (John  xiv.  21.) 

"  June  12th. — Had  a  luminous  visitation  at  the  shore. 
Why  do  I  not  walk  at  all  times  in  the  light  and  liberty  of 
the  Gospel  ? — I  pray,  O  God,  for  a  fruitful  Sabbath  on  the 
morrow  ;  a  quiet,  and  let  me  hope  a  profitable  Sabbath. 
The  chapter  was  the  sixth  of  John  ;  and  the  most  powerful 
of  its  topics  was  the  atonement,  set  forth  in  terms  of  the 
flesh  and  blood  of  Christ,  the  bread  that  came  down  from 
heaven.  The  transition  from  death  to  life,  on  the  appropri- 
ation of  the  sacrifice,  is  the  great  turning  point  of  a  sinner's 
salvation.  My  God,  bring  me  thereto,  and  let  the  great 
Propitiation  of  the  Cross  be  the  very  food  and  aliment  of  my 
soul. 

''June  ISth. — Fatal  information  from  Mr.  Dunlop  anent 
Sir  Robert  Peel.  The  Church  prospect  dark;  but  let  us 
hope  in  God. 

''June  19th. — Had  gleams  of  the  Gospel  freeness  ;  sure 
that  on  no  other  footing  I  can  prosper  or  be  right.  My  family 
in  feeble  health,  and  the  prospects  of  the  Church  very  dark. 
Bear  me  up,  O  God,  under  the  weight  of  every  visitation. 
Be  Thyself  my  portion.  To  attain  the  maximum  of  a  right 
physical  state  I  would  perhaps  require  to  be  a  shade  more 
temperate.  I  mean  by  its  maximum  right  state  that  in  which 
the  physical  gives  the  least  impediment  to  the  spiritual ;  and 
is  most  consistent  with,  if  not  subservient  to,  the  duties  and 
exercises  and  enjoyments  of  the  life  of  faith. 

"June  21st. — Very  quiet  day.  Surely  I  might  live  in 
greater  spirituality  did  I  cherish  always  the  sense  of  God  as 
a  reconciling  and  reconciled  Father.  Let  me  have  faith  and 
feeling  up  to  the  offered  privileges  of  the  Gospel,  God  has 
been  pleased  to  make  this  a  day  of  peace,  and  rather  of  bright 
anticipation  in  regard  to  the  Church,  even  though  its  con- 


.ET.  61.  JOURNAL.  261 

nection  with  the  State  should  be  dissolved.  But  recurring 
to  the  topic  of  a  large  confidence  and  belief  in  the  promises 
of  the  Gospel,  let  me  act  on  the  injunction,  Open  thy  mouth 
wide,  and  I  will  fill  it ! 

''June  23d. — I  have  got  into  an  embarrassment  here,  as 
the  prudence  of  my  building  a  house  will  be  affected  by  the 
uncertainty  of  the  Church  prospect.  We  are  taught  to  make 
our  requests  unto  God  in  every  thing.     Help  and  guide  me, 

0  Lord,  in  this  matter  also. 

"June  29th. — Have  begun  my  fourth  volume  on  the  Ro- 
mans.— O  my  God,  enable  me  to  take  my  own  lesson  and 
lay  hold  of  the  righteousness  of  Christ  as  my  righteousness. 

"  Sunday,  July  Ath. —  A  pleasurable  day.  My  chapter 
was  John  ix. ;  but  it  was  my  ordinary  reading,  in  Romans  i., 
that  furnished  the  leading  thought  of  this  Sabbath — '  Christ 
the  power  and  wisdom  of  God  unto  salvation.'      Never  am 

1  in  a  better  frame  than  when  dwelling  in  simple  faith  on 
Christ's  offered  righteousness,  and  making  it  the  object  of 
my  acceptation. — O  Lord,  I  pray  for  more  and  more  of  the 
clearness  and  enlargement  of  this  view  ;  and  grant  me  the 
Spirit  of  adoption.  O  that  I  could  attain  the  experience  of 
Him  who  says,  'I  have  beheved,  therefore  have  I  spoken.' 
Let  my  light  in  particular  shine  before  my  family. 

"July  5th. — In  peace  ;  but  I  should  like  to  be  more  as- 
sured of  its  being  a  religious  peace — peace  in  believing,  the 
peace  of  those  who  love  God's  law. 

"July  8th. — A  growing  taste  for  the  simplicity  of  the 
faith  and  conviction  of  its  efficacy. 

"July  9th. — My  first  chemical  lecture  at  Craigholm.  My 
God,  may  the  joy  of  Thee  be  my  strength.  A  glorious  day ; 
but  oh  that  there  were  more  of  faith  and  heaven  in  my  soul. 

"July  10th. — Mrs.  C.  tells  me  of  a  complaint  under 
which  poor  J.  labors  that  might  well  make  me  serious.  Am 
I  not  too  light-hearted  and  too  luxurious,  and  altogether  too 
self-indulgent  ?  Certain  it  is  that  in  and  of  myself  I  am 
altogether  vile  and  worthless,  and  would  need,  in  dependence 


262  xMExMOlRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

on  grace  alone,  to  have  more  of  watchfulness  unto  prayer, 
more  of  self-denial,  and  a  far  more  tender  sense  of  the  evil 
of  ungodliness,  than  habitually  and  practically  belong  to  me. 
— My  God,  give  me  wisdom  and  principle,  and  the  life  of 
faith,  in  reference  to  our  visitors  from  England. 

''July  nth. — Felt  the  importance  of  the  first  verses  m 
John  X.,  as  evincing,  1.  That  ministers  might  be  appointed 
for  congregations  ab  extra;  but,  2.  That  there  is  such  a  sym- 
pathy between  a  minister  called  and  quahfied  by  the  Spirit, 
and  all  real  Christians,  as  to  afford  a  criterion  by  which  the 
rightness  of  the  appointment  might  be  tested.  Other  parts 
of  this  chapter  very  precious. — Give  me,  O  Lord,  with  all 
freedom  to  go  out  and  in,  and  find  pasture  for  my  soul. 

"  July  1  oth. — A  most  unsavory  letter  from ,  of  which 

I  could  only  relieve  myself  by  replying  to  it.  Feel  a  most 
degrading  subjection  to  circumstances.  O  for  that  love  of 
God  which  nothing  can  disquiet  or  offend. 

''July  I'ith. — Wrote  Lord  Galloway.  Medically  better, 
and  morally  in  less  discomfort,  but  have  to  complain  of  my 
extreme  sensibility  to  the  opinions  of  men.  Why  do  I  not 
look  upon  God  ?  Make  me  what  Thou  would'st  have  me. 
Let  me  be  still,  and  know  that  Thou  art  God. 

"July  1 5th. — Mean  to  build  at  Morningside  ;  but  let  me 
not  forget  the  end  of  the  world  and  the  coming  of  Christ — 
the  catastrophe  that  comes  as  a  thief  in  the  night.  Among 
the  other  mercies  of  this  day  I  have  to  record  a  most  agree- 
able letter  from  Dr.  Gordon. 

"July  17th. — Find  it  essential  to  a  religious  frame  that 
there  should  be  more  of  devotional  thinking  and  prayer.  The 
Church  crisis  looks  nearer. 

"July  ISth. — At  home  all  day;  seeking  after  a  simple 
faith.  The  more  simple  and  child-like  the  better.  Gleams 
of  comfort  under  its  occasional  visitations.  Heavenly  Father  ! 
establish  me  therein  more  and  more ;  so  shall  my  bands  be 
loosed,  and  I  will  serve  Thee  henceforth  in  the  spirit  of 
adoption. 


^T.  61.  JOURNAL.  263 

"  July  23d. — Have  great  need  of  the  life  of  faith.  I  have 
sad  infirmities  of  temper.  My  God,  help  me  to  overcome  all 
the  obstructions  vi^hich  lie  in  the  way  of  my  perfect  observ- 
ance of  the  second  law.  How  miserably  deficient  in  the  grace 
of  endurance.      Help  me,  O  God  I 

"  July  29th. — Not  satisfied  with  my  composition  on  the 
Pv-omans,  and  fear  that  I  strain  too  much  after  effect.  Guide 
and  invigorate  me,  O  Lord,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  work; 
but  keep  me,  above  all,  steadfast  in  the  faith  of  Christ,  and 
let  it  dwell  habitually  within  me. 

"August  1st,  Stmday. — My  chapter  was  John  xiii.,  and 
I  certainly  had  great  satisfaction  in  my  Sabbath  exercise 
thereupon.  What  a  blessed  and  high  achievement  to  realize 
the  charity  of  the  Gospel  as  described  in  1  Cor.  xiii.,  which 
was  in  my  ordinary  reading  to-day.  O  God,  let  this  be  my 
distinct  aim,  that  so  the  same  mind  may  be  in  me  that  was 
in  Christ  Jesus. 

"August  5th. — Much,  very  much,  to  change  ere  I  am 
as  I  ought  to  be  in  the  element  of  religion. 

"August  1th. — The  Church  matters  seem  fast  hastening 
to  a  crisis,  and  a  disruption  seems  inevitable.  I  pray  for 
counsel  and  fortitude,  and  all  the  proper  virtues  of  such  an 
emergency,  from  on  high. 

"August  8th, — My  chapter  to-day  John  xiv.  I  find  it 
easier,  and  surely  it  is  safer,  to  take  up  my  topics  of  medi- 
tation from  the  Bible,  rather  than  to  fetch  them  up  by  a 
gratuitous  effort,  or  wait  for  them  in  reveries  of  my  own. 
My  God  I  bless  and  establish  every  good  impression  which  the 
successive  topics  of  that  passage  made  upon  me  at  the  time. 
Let  me  but  delight  in  thy  law,  O  God,  and  count  it  my  great 
business  to  be  occupied  therewith,  and  then  nothing  shall 
offend  me. 

"  August  \2th. — Heard  to-day  of  the  Commission.  Guide 
and  fortify,  O  Lord,  thy  Church  in  the  approaching  crisis. 

"August  13th. — The  times  are  hastening  to  a  crisis. 
We  must  all  be  preparing  for  great  changes.      My  God,  give 


264  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

grace  and  guidance  for  the  emergency  that  now  hangs  over 
us. 

^'August  15th. — The  chapter  of  this  day  was  John  xv. 
— very  precious.  O  let  me  abide  in  Christ,  and  in  Him 
have  nourishment  and  strength.  Quicken  me,  O  Lord,  and 
let  me  so  keep  Thy  words  as  to  have  the  love  of  the  Father 
and  the  Son.      The  Church  question  begins  to  engross  me. 

"  August  16th. — My  Saviour,  why  art  Thou  so  little  in 
my  thoughts  ?  Revive  and  regenerate  me,  O  God  I  Brief 
preparation  for  the  Commission. 

"August  19th. — How  humbled  I  ought  to  feel  at  my 
exceeding  distance  from  the  test  of  loving  God,  that  great  is 
my  peace,  and  that  nothing  shall  offend  me. 

''August  27th. — Opened  the  Commission  in  the  High 
Church,  but  adjourned  to  St.  Luke's  with  Dr.  Makellar. 
Went  off  to  Cramond  with  Mr.  M.,  where  we  met  for 
prayer,  and  dined  and  spent  the  night.  A  number  of  the 
brethren — Dr.  Gordon,  Messrs.  Cunningham,  Candlish,  Bu- 
chanan, and  Home. 

"  SejJtemher  5th. — Had  nearer  approach  to  God  in  Christ 
than  usual,  but  have  still  much  to  aspire  after.  Much 
delighted  with  the  first  chapter  of  Colossians.  The  peculiar 
Sabbath  chapter  was  John  xviii. — O  my  God,  let  the  mind 
of  Mrs.  C.  be  established,  strengthened,  and  settled  in  the 
faith.  May  the  eternity  which  is  so  fast  approaching  be 
full  in  our  eye  ;  and  let  us  walk  together  as  heirs  of  the 
grace  of  life. 

"  September  9th. — Strike  off  these  fetters  of  false  ortho- 
doxy which  stand  in  the  way  of  my  new  obedience  ;  and 
while  I  retain  entire  dependence  on  Christ's  righteousness 
and  grace,  let  me,  at  the  same  time,  have  the  comfort  of 
knowing  that  my  labor,  my  own  personal  labor,  is  not  in 
vain  in  the  Lord. 

"  Sei^tcmher  lAth. — Let  me  keep  by  the  work  of  self-dis- 
cipline amid  all  defects  and  discouragements. 

"  September   21th. — Began   this   day   my   Institutes   of 


JET.  61.  HOR.E  BIB  LICE  QUOTIDIAN  .€.  265 

Theoloo^y.  I  pray  for  God's  blessing  upon  the  work,  and 
that  faith  and  His  glory  may  be  the  single  aim  of  my  heart. 
I  have  great  comfort  in  quiet  and  leisurely  and  thorough 
study, 

"  October  1st. — My  last  lecture  on  chemistry.  Some 
failures  and  breakages,  but  altogether  a  splendid  and  satis- 
factory conclusion. 

"  October  2d. — Let  me  do  all  I  can  for  others  ;  but  re- 
member that  whatever  I  do  beyond  the  point  of  doing  it 
cheerfully  is  not  an  acceptable  sacrifice  to  God. 

"  October  od. — Began  my  regular  Biblical  devotions  this 
day — I  trust  with  good  to  my  soul.  The  result  so  far  has 
been  a  feehng  of  comfort  and  satisfaction.  Prosper  this  enter- 
prise, Almighty  Father ;  and  bless  it  to  my  eternal  welfare." 

The  Biblical  compositions  referred  to  in  the  last  extracts, 
commenced  at  this  period,  were  continued  by  Dr.  Chalmers 
with  unbroken  regularity  till  the  day  of  his  decease.  Go 
where  he  might,  however  he  might  be  employed,  each  week- 
day had  its  few  verses  read,  thought  over,  written  upon, 
giving  what  he  denominated  his  "  Horas  Bibhcse  Quoti- 
diansB  ;"*  each  Sabbath-day  had  its  two  chapters,  one  in  the 
Old,  the  other  in  the  New  Testament,  with  the  two  trains 
of  meditative  devotion  recorded  to  which  they  respectively 
gave  birth — forming  what  he  denominated  his  ''  Horse  Bib- 
lical Sabbaticae."!  In  preparing  the  "Horse  Quotidianse,"  he 
had  beside  him  for  use  and  reference  the  Concordance,  Kitto's 
Pictorial  Bible,  Poole's  Synopsis,  Henry's  Commentary,  and 
Robinson's  Researches  in  Palestine.  These  constituted  what 
he  called  his  "  Biblical  Library."  "  There,"  said  he  to  a 
friend,  pointing  to  the  volumes  as  they  lay  upon  the  table  of 
his  library,  "  there  are  the  books  I  use — all  that  is  biblical 
is  there.  I  have  to  do  with  nothing  besides  in  my  biblical 
study."  It  would  have  defeated  his  primary  object  had  he 
used  the  many  other  helps  which  were  at  hand,  had  he  been 

*  See  Posthumous  Works^  vols,  i.,  ii.,  iii.  t  Ibid.,  vols,  iv.,  v. 

VOL.   IV. M 


266  MEMOIRS  OF  DK.  CHALMERS.  1841, 

led  away  by  their  employment  into  any  lengthened  critical, 
historical,  or  doctrinal  investigations.  These  daily  writings 
were  not  intended  to  be  vehicles  of  learned  research.  They 
were  not  intended  to  constitute  an  elaborate  exposition.  He 
had  no  intention  of  drawing  up  for  the  use  of  others  a  regular 
commentary  on  the  Holy  Scriptures.  He  used  the  pen  for 
his  own  private  benefit  alone.  His  great  desire  was  to  take 
off  from  the  sacred  page  as  quick,  fresh,  vivid,  and  complete 
an  impression  as  he  could,  and  in  using  his  pen  to  aid  in  this, 
his  object  was  far  more  to  secure  a  faithful  transcript  of  that 
impression  than  either  to  examine  or  describe  the  mould  that 
made  it.  His  own  description  of  the  "  Horec  Biblicse  Quoti- 
dianse"  was,  that  they  consisted  of  his  first  and  readiest 
thoughts,  clothed  in  the  first  and  readiest  words  which  oc- 
curred to  him.  They  are  not  the  less  valuable  on  this  account. 
"  We  want,"  says  Lord  Bacon,  "  short,  sound,  and  judicious 
notes  upon  Scripture,  v/ithout  running  into  commonplaces, 
pursuing  controversies,  or  reducing  those  notes  to  artificial 
method,  but  leaving  them  quite  loose  and  native.  For, 
certainly,  as  those  wines  which  flow  from  the  first  treading 
of  the  grape  are  sweeter  and  better  than  those  forced  out  by 
the  press,  which  gives  them  the  roughness  of  the  husk  and 
the  stone,  so  are  those  doctrines  best  and  sweetest  which  flow 
from  a  gentle  crush  of  the  Scriptures,  and  are  not  wrung  into 
controversies  and  commonplaces."*  The  wise  hand  was 
needed  as  well  as  the  gentle  crush,  and  in  the  "  Horse 
Quotidiana3,"  the  fruit  of  both,  we  have  the  want  complained 
of  by  Bacon  supplied. 

The  "Horse  Sabbaticse"  differ  both  in  form  and  substance 
from  the  '•  Horse  Quotidianfe."  Written  amid  the  quiet  of 
the  day  of  rest,  they  rise  to  a  high  region,  and  they  breathe 
a  holier  air.  Contemplative  and  devotional  throughout,  they 
pass  generally  into  direct  addresses  to  the  Deity.  Such 
references  are  continually  occurring  to  passing  incidents,  that 
they  might  fitly  be  described,  if  the  expression  were  allow- 
*  See  Douglas  Jerrold's  Weekly  Neivspaper,  Nov.  27.  1847. 


JET.  61.  HOR^  BIBLIC^  SABBATICiE.  267 

able,  as  the  Sabbath  diary  of  the  last  six  years  of  Dr. 
Chalmers's  life.  His  impressions  as  to  the  events  are  given 
here  in  a  manner  so  free  and  unrestrained  as  to  impart  to 
them  a  peculiar  interest.  But  the  chief  value  of  the  "  Sab- 
baticae,"  and  that  which  makes  us  rank  them  as  among  the 
most  precious  of  all  Dr.  Chalmers's  writings,  lies  in  the  spirit 
of  rational  and  scriptural,  yet  lofty  and  ethereal  devotion 
which  they  breathe.  The  innermost  movements  of  his  spirit 
are  here  spread  out  to  us  as  he  himself  spread  them  out 
before  that  eye  which  seeth  in  secret  :  we  see  him  as  he 
bowed  in  simple,  sincere,  profound  humility  when  alone  in 
the  presence  of  God — we  hear  him  as,  in  tones  often  so  low 
and  deep,  yet  often  also  so  heavenly  and  sublime,  he  poured 
his  confessions  and  desires  and  aspirations  into  the  ear  of  the 
Holy  One. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

PATRONAGE  ABOLISHED  BY  THE  REVOLUTION  SET- 
TLEMENT—THE  ACT  OF  SECURITY  AND  TREATY  OF 
UNION— PATRONAGE  RESTORED  BY  THE  ACT  OF 
QUEEN  ANNE— DR.  CHALMERS  TAKES  PART  IN  THE 
ANTI- PATRONAGE  MOVExMENT —  VINDICATION  OF 
THE  STEP  IN  HIS  LETTER  TO  THE  DUKE  OF  ARGYLL 
—NARRATIVE  OF  THE  SETTLEMENT  AT  CULSAL- 
MOND— THE  INTERDICTS  OF  THE  COURT  OF  SESSION 
—CONDUCT  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT— THE  NEW  PARTY 
IN  THE  CHURCH— DR.  CHALMERS'S  LETTER  TO  THE 
REV.  MR.  BRUCE— THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  1842 
—MOTION  FOR  THE  ABOLITION  OF  PATRONAGE— 
THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS. 

By  the  Revolution  Settlement  in  1699,  the  Royal  su- 
premacy in  spiritual  affairs  and  lay  patronage  in  the  Church 
of  Scotland  were  abolished.  When,  a  few  years  afterward, 
a  motion  for  the  union  of  the  two  kingdoms  was  brought  for- 
ward, the  people  and  Parliament  of  Scotland  were  so  alive  to 
the  perils  to  which  their  Church  would  be  exposed  under  the 
predominating  influence  of  Anglican  institutions,  and  so  de- 
termined that  "  the  worship,  discipline,  and  government  of 
their  Church  should  be  eflectually  and  unalterably  secured," 
that  not  only  did  they  forbid  their  Commissioners  to  treat  "of 
or  concerning  any  alteration"  in  their  Church,  but  they  passed 
an  Act,  entitled  "The  Act  of  Security,"  by  which  they  did 
"  for  ever  confirm  the  5th  x'^ct  of  the  1st  Parliament  of  King 
William  and  Queen  Mary,  entituled  '  Act  Ratifying  the  Con- 
fession of  Faith  and  Settling  Presbyterian  Church  Govern- 
ment,' and  the  whole  other  Acts  of  Parliament  relating 
thereto;"  and  did  "establish  and  confirm  the  said  Protestant 
and  Presbyterian  Church  government  to  continue  without  any 
alteration  to  the  people  of  this  land  in  all  succeeding  genera- 


^T.  61.  THE  REVOLUTION  SETTLEMENT.  269 

tioiis."  It  was  also  especially  enacted,  that  this  Act  "  should 
be  held  and  observed  in  all  time  coming  as  a  fundamental 
and  essential  condition  of  any  treaty  or  union  to  be  concluded 
betwixt  the  two  kingdoms,  without  any  alteration  thereof,  or 
derogation  thereto,  in  any  sort  for  ever."  This  Act  was  ac- 
cepted and  ratified  by  the  English  Parliament,  and  embodied 
entire  in  the  Treaty  of  Union.  Iti  violation  of  these  mani- 
fold and  most  sacred  securities,  when  Bolingbroke  was  plotting 
the  overthrow  of  the  other  Protestant  institutions  of  the  em- 
pire, and  was  secretly  preparing  the  way  for  the  return  of  the 
Stuarts  to  the  throne,  he  introduced  an  Act  for  the  restoration 
of  Patronage  in  Scotland,  and  hurried  it  with  indecent  haste 
through  Parliament.  The  Church  had  barely  time  to  let  her 
voice  of  remonstrance  against  such  a  flagrant  breach  of  the 
Treaty  of  Union,  be  heard  in  the  House  of  Lords.  It  was 
heard,  however,  only  to  be  disregarded  ;  and  by  the  10th  of 
Queen  Anne,  passed  on  the  2 2d  May,  1711,  Patronage  was 
once  more  established.  So  strong  was  the  general  conviction 
of  the  impolicy  and  unrighteousness  of  this  act,  that  for  many 
years  it  was  not  acted  on  in  Scotland,  the  patrons  not  claim- 
ing the  right  which  it  bestowed,  or  the  Church,  without 
challenge,  disallowing  it.  It  came  gradually,  however,  into 
operation,  and  at  last,  under  the  reign  of  Moderatism,  was 
universally  acted  upon.  The  course  of  events  once  more  di- 
rected to  it  the  attention  of  the  Church.  It  obviously  lay 
at  the  root  of  all  the  evils  by  which  the  Church  was  visited ; 
and  the  failure  of  recent  negotiations  led  an  increasing  num- 
ber to  demand  its  abolition  as  the  best  and  surest  method  of 
deliverance.  At  an  important  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Edinburgh,  held  on  the  26th  January,  1842,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Gordon  moved  a  series  of  resolutions,  affirming  "  the  pro- 
priety of  seeking  the  abolition  of  the  Law  of  Patronage,  as, 
especially  in  the  construction  now  attempted  to  be  put  upon 
it,  involving  a  violation  of  the  constitution  of  the  Church  and 
kingdom  secured  at  the  Pwevolution,  and  unalterably  ratified 
by  the  Act  of  Security  and  Treaty  of  Union." 


270  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

In  seconding  this  motion  Dr.  Chalmers  said — "  When  the 
Church  and  the  patrons  harmonize,  and  are  alike  bent  on  the 
Christian  good  of  the  people,  the  matter  proceeds  rightly  and 
prosperously.  The  times  have  been  when  they  harmonized 
for  evil,  and  the  people  were  sacrificed  ;  but  the  times  are 
now  when  the  Church  is  on  the  side  of  the  people,  and  very 
many  of  the  Patrons  are  against  them.  I  see  nothing  that 
can  extricate  the  difficulty  but  that  the  people  be  called  in 
and  restored  to  the  place  which  they  held  in  the  first  ages  of 
the  Christian  Church,  and  in  the  best  and  most  flourishing 
periods  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  If  the  two  can  be  made 
to  stand  together — if  Patronage  and  the  rights  of  the  popular 
conscience  can  in  any  way  be  amalgamated — the  object  of 
the  motion  -were  fulfilled,  without  the  last  resort,  which,  on 
the  failure  of  all  previous  expedients,  is  thus  opened  up  to  us. 
But  I  confess  I  have  my  doubts,  nay  more,  I  have  my  fears 
— nay  more,  after  the  weary  experience  of  so  many  years,  I 
begin  to  despair  of  a  reconciliation  between  these  jarring  ele- 
ments, which,  after  all  our  attempts  to  conjoin  them,  like 
water  and  oil,  are  found  to  be  immiscible.  There  is  one  com- 
fort in  the  midst  of  all  these  discomfitures,  that  if  one  or  other 
of  these  adverse  elements  is  to  be  sacrificed,  I  feel  no  perplexity 
on  the  question  which  of  the  two  ought  to  give  way.  Be- 
tween absolute  and  unmitigated  Patronage  on  the  one  hand, 
and  popular  election  on  the  other,  I  do  not  hesitate  a  moment 
to  say  which  is  the  likelier  constitution  of  the  two  for  a 
laborious,  a  faithful,  and  a  well  appointed  mini.stry  in  the 
Church  of  Scotland.  With  a  Church  prepared  on  the  one 
hand  to  fix  and  to  regulate  and  to  raise  indefinitely,  if  she  so 
choose,  the  learning  and  the  quahfications  of  the  eligible — 
and  on  the  other,  by  her  high  demands  both  for  character 
and  knowledge  at  the  admission  of  communicants  to  the  table 
of  the  Lord,  to  raise  indefinitely  the  character  of  her  electors, 
I  confess  that,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  I  should  look,  under 
the  working  of  a  system  like  this,  for  the  triumphant  progress 
of  a  so  renewed  and  regenerated  Church  among  the  people 


JET.  61.  ABOLITION  OF  PATRONAGE.  271 


of  these  lands.  And  should  the  interloper,  Patronage,  com© 
in.  betwixt,  and  ask  for  her  function  and  her  place  of  occu- 
pancy in  the  midst  of  us — should  this  corrupter,  in  other  days, 
of  the  purity  of  our  Church,  this  disturber,  and  never  mora 
than  now,  of  the  peace  of  our  Israel,  lift  her  unabashed  vis- 
age, and,  with  all  her  sins  upon  her  forehead,  tell  us  of  her 
claims,  and  ask  how  she  is  to  be  disposed  of,  let  her  be  made 
to  know  that  we  have  no  demand  whatever  for  her  services, 
and  that  the  power  which  refuses  to  be  regulated  ought  forth- 
with to  be  destroyed. 

"  I  conclude  with  expressing  it  as  my  earnest  prayer  that 
these  controversies  might  soon  pass  away  ;  and  still  more  that, 
however  terminated,  the  Church  may  be  found  from  first  to 
last  to  have  acquitted  herself  with  perfect  honor,  and  so  as 
to  come  forth  with  unimpaired  moral  weight  in  the  eyes  of 
the  country.  Circumstances  have  brought  her  into  contact 
and  busy  converse  with  the  politicians  of  this  world.  It  is 
her  part  to  maintain  the  most  perfect  simplicity  and  godly 
sincerity  in  all  her  transactions  with  them  ;  and  I  sit  down 
wdth  the  most  perfect  confidence  that  if  her  ways  please  God 
He  will  make  even  her  deadliest  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with 
her." 

At  the  opening  of  the  Non-Intrusion  controversy  Dr.  Chal- 
mers had  not  only  kept  himself  aloof  from  the  Anti-patronage 
movement,  but  had  strenuously  resisted  it,  as  throwing  an 
obstacle  between  the  Church  and  the  politicians  in  the  pend- 
ing negotiations.  The  part  now  taken  by  him  and  others 
in  fostering  a  movement  which  they  had  previously  condemn- 
ed, marks  a  new  stage  in  the  progress  of  the  controversy,  and 
receives  its  justification  from  the  altered  position  of  affairs. 
It  lay  open,  however,  to  grave  charges,  which  were  unscrupu- 
lously adduced.  It  was  represented  as  stamping  dishonesty 
on  all  the  previous  procedure  of  the  Church,  as  if  she  had 
been  cherishing  a  design  which  she  had  carefully  concealed. 
She  now,  it  was  alleged,  dropped  the  mask,  and  revealed  the 
democratic  spirit  by  which  her  whole  conduct  had  been  ani- 


272  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1841. 

mated.  Nor  were  enemies  the  only  parties  who  condemned 
this  movement.  By  some  of  the  best  friends  of  the  Church 
it  was  regarded  as  a  needless  shifting  of  her  ground,  unjustifi- 
able in  itself  and  unworthy  of  the  Church's  dignity.  Among 
many  remonstrances  against  its  impolicy,  there  was  one  which, 
coming  from  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  who  had  already  proved  his 
attachment  to  the  Church,  and  was  waiting  only  for  the  iii- 
vorable  moment  for  pressing  his  measure  on  the  Legislature, 
was  entitled  to  the  weightiest  regard.  Dr.  Chalmers  replied 
to  it  as  follows  : 

"  Edinburgh,  February  9th,  1842. 

"  My  Lord  Duke — I  understand  that  the  enemies  of  our 
cause  represent  the  motion  carried  the  other  day  in  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Edinburgh  as  an  onward  movement  on  the  part  of 
the  majority  in  the  Church,  which  they  had  all  along  con- 
templated, but  kept  secret  till  now,  thereby  laying  themselves 
open  to  the  charge  of  a  double  and  disingenuous  policy,  as  if, 
while  negotiating  for  a  small,  they  were  all  the  while  intent 
on  a  larger  measure,  which  they  meant,  when  a  fitting  oppor- 
tunity came  round,  to  speed  onward  by  one  step  after  another 
in  a  career  of  indefinite  and  unknown  changes. 

•*  I  will  not  speak  of  those  negotiations  wherewith  I  myself 
have  not  had  personally  to  do,  though  I  believe  them  capable 
of  entire  vindication.  But  your  Grace  will  permit  me  to  say, 
that  in  all  my  correspondence,  and  on  every  occasion  when  I 
have  taken  part  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Church  Courts,  I 
have  studied  the  most  perfect  simplicity  and  openness  in  all 
my  avowals,  and  have  never  shrunk  from  the  most  frank  and 
explicit  and  unreserved  declaration  of  my  views. 

"  Two  years  ago,  when  I  corresponded  with  Lord  Aber- 
deen, my  immediate  object  was  to  obtain  the  liberu??i  arbi- 
trium  ;  but  I  never  ceased  to  express  my  desire  for  a  much 
larger  concession  than  this  to  the  wishes  of  the  people,  and 
assured  him  on  various  occasions  that  the  more  nearly  he  ap- 
proached to  a  popular  constitution,  the  more  surely  would  he 


^T.  61.  LETTER  TO  THE  DUKE  OF  ARGYLL.  273 

provide  both  for  the  prosperity  of  the  Church  and  the  peace 
of  the  country. 

"  But  on  this  very  principle  I  infinitely  preferred  your 
Grace's  Bill  to  the  measure  I  attempted  to  press  on  Lord 
Aberdeen ;  and  surely  was  quite  at  liberty  to  become  its  advo- 
cate when  that  measure  was  denied  to  me.  I  accordingly 
(lid  advocate  it  most  strenuously  at  the  last  General  Assembly, 
not  as  absolutely  the  best,  but  as  the  best  that  we  had  any 
likelihood  of  getting-.  My  opinion  as  to  the  optimum  maxi- 
mw7i,  however,  remained  unchanged,  and,  having  nothing  to 
disguise,  I  proclaimed  it  openly,  which  was,  that  the  best  con- 
stitution for  a  Church  I  deemed  to  be  that  where  the  minis- 
ters were  paid  by  the  State  and  chosen  by  the  people. 

"  This  brings  me  down  to  the  present  time.  The  libenun 
arhitrium  was  refused  to  us  by  Lord  Aberdeen,  and  we  took 
to  your  Grace's  Bill.  The  liberum  arhitrium  has  been  again 
refused  to  us  by  Sir  James  Graham,  and  your  Grace  has  rep- 
resented the  carrying  of  your  Bill  as  all  but  hopeless.  What 
then  remains  for  us  to  do  ?  We  now  feel  as  if  it  were  a  vain 
endeavor  to  enlist  the  understanding  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment on  the  side  of  any  of  our  ecclesiastical  peculiarities.  It 
was  perhaps  wrong  to  expect  that  they  should  judge  aright 
on  the  merits  of  a  Presbyterian  Church  law  ;  but  we  may 
have  a  better  chance  of  finding  access  to  the  Parliamentary 
mind  of  England  if  we  speak  to  them  of  the  merits  and  char- 
acter of  one  of  their  own  acts,  and  appeal  to  their  sense  of 
justice  on  the  flagrant  iniquity  done  to  Scotland,  when  by  a 
breach  of  the  Articles  of  Union,  that  Act  of  Queen  Anne  was 
passed  which  has  brought  evils  on  our  Church,  that,  after 
the  failure  of  our  repeated  trials,  we  may  well  conclude, 
should  your  Grace  not  succeed  in  carrying  your  Bill,  to  be 
wholly  irremediable.  Nothing  more  natural,  nothing  more 
justifiable,  than  that  after  these  defeats  and  disappointments 
we  should  try  to  get  rid  of  an  act  which  is  the  real  source 
of  all  our  difficulties,  so  as  to  be  thrown  back  on  the  state  we 
held  between  1690  and  1711,  one  of  the  most  flourishing 


274  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

periods  in  the  history  of  our  Church.  Aiul  it  is  not  we  who 
spontaneously,  and  of  our  own  wantonness,  are  making 
changes  from  one  proposal  to  another  :  we  are  compelled  to 
it  by  those  on  the  other  side  who  reject  our  first  proposals, 
and  force  us  to  take  refuge  in  succeeding  ones.  It  is  by  a 
confusion  of  ideas  that  people  say  of  us,  Nothing  will  content 
them  :  if  they  get  one  reform,  they  M'ill  be  after  another 
presently.  Truly  all  our  apparent  changes  proceed  from  this, 
that,  instead  of  getting  any  thing,  we  are  refused  every  thing; 
and  we  have  been  shut  up  to  our  present  position,  not  by  any 
wayward  fluctuations  of  our  own,  but  by  the  unyielding  ob- 
stinacy of  those  who  are  opposed  to  us. 

"  It  may  very  naturally  be  asked,  Why,  if  you  thought  it 
better  to  have  a  large  than  a  small  measure,  why  did  you 
seek  the  small,  and  not  lift  at  once  your  demand  for  the  large, 
and  which  you  profess  to  regard,  too,  as  intrinsically  prefer- 
able to  the  other.  We  have  perhaps  done  wrong  in  this  ; 
but  we  wanted  to  obtain  redress  in  the  most  practicable  and 
pacific  way,  and  with  the  least  possible  amount  of  change  or 
innovation.  We  were  willing  to  be  put  into  a  state  that 
"was  at  all  tolerable  in  the  most  cautious,  and,  if  I  may  so 
term  it,  in  the  most  conservative  way  possible  ;  and  all  we 
have  got  in  return  is  the  misinterpretation  of  our  proceedings, 
as  if  with  the  insatiable  spirit  of  anarchs  and  revolutionists 
we  had  entered  on  a  desperate  course  of  transitions  from  one 
stage  to  another,  till  we  had  precipitated  the  Church  into 
some  gulf,  the  nature  of  which  I  do  not  well  understand,  but 
which  I  have  no  doubt  is  sufficiently  frightful  in  the  scared 
imaginations  of  our  adversaries. 

"  It  is  exceedingly  to  be  regretted,  that,  in  this  heated 
warfare  of  party,  so  much  injustice  should  be  going  ;  but  I 
have  all  confidence  in  your  Grace's  calm  and  enlightened 
patriotism,  and  am  sure  that  you  will  bear  with  me,  if,  in 
the  few  remaining  lines,  I  attempt  to  lay  before  you  what  I 
hold  for  any  practical  object  is  most  material  to  be  known. 

"  1st,  The  Church  may  acquiesce  in,  she  never  will  ap- 


.^T.  62.    LETTER  TO  THE  DUKE  OF  ARGYLL.       275 

prove  of  a  mere  liberum  arbitrium ;  and  it  will  have  little 
or  no  effect  in  laying  an  arrest  on  the  Anti-patronage  move- 
ment. 

"  2d,  The  Church,  in  my  opinion,  would  accept  of  your 
Grace's  Bill,  and  that  not  as  a  step  to  ulterior  changes,  but 
for  the  purpose  of  M'orking  it  honestly  and  faithfully,  with 
the  view  to  an  efficient  ministration  of  the  Gospel  in  Scot- 
land. Many  of  us,  and  myself  in  particular,  do  not  think 
that  it  comes  up  to  the  beau  ideal  of  a  best  possible  consti- 
tution for  the  appointment  of  clergymen.  But  we  shall  be 
content  to  M^ait  for  this  being  realized  by  a  gradual  and 
pacific  march  of  improvement,  and  have  no  sympathy  with 
those  who  talk  of  installments,  and  would  keep  the  Church 
and  the  country  in  a  state  of  incessant  turmoil  and  agitation. 

"  But,  3rZ,  and  most  important  of  all,  The  Church,  I  fondly 
hope  and  pray,  will  never  consent  to  be  cast  down  by  any 
power  on  earth  beneath  the  liberum  arbitrium.  If  the  right 
of  the  patron,  on  the  one  hand,  is  to  carry  it  over  the  judg- 
ment of  the  ecclesiastical  courts  that  it  is  not  for  the  Chris- 
tian good  of  the  families  in  a  parish  that  his  presentee,  un- 
acceptable to  them,  shall  be  admitted  their  minister  ;  the 
Church,  on  the  other  hand,  never  will  submit  to  the  man- 
date of  any  court  under  the  sun  calling  on  them  to  ordain 
and  admit  that  man.  On  this  head  I  trust  that  our  major- 
ity will  present  an  unbroken  phalanx  of  resistance  to  the  vio- 
lence that  would  offer  such  an  invasion  upon  our  liberties  ; 
and  should  the  further  violence  be  perpetrated  of  driving  us, 
because  of  this,  from  our  own  rightful  patrimony,  we  shall  in 
hundreds,  I  trust,  quit  the  endowments  of  a  Church  thus 
Erastianized,  and,  under  God,  cast  the  support  of  our  righteous 
cause  on  the  people  of  Scotland.  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  To  His  Grace  The  Duke  of  Argyll." 

Meanwhile,  in  the  race  of  ecclesiastical  insubordination 
the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  had  found  a  vigorous  rival  in 
in  its  next  neighbor,  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch.      The  Rev, 


276  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

Mr.  Middleton,  who  had  acted  for  some  years  as  assistant 
to  the  minister  of  Culsalmond,  obtained  at  last  a  presentation 
to  that  parish.     The  Presbytery  of  Garioch  met  on  the  28th 
October,  1841,  to  moderate  in  the  Call.      A  majority  of  the 
communicants  on  the  roll  dissented  from  the  appointment. 
According   to   the   recent   regulations   of  the    Church,    the 
Presbytery  was  not  bound  to  give  immediate  effect  to  that 
dissent  by  rejecting  the  presentee,  but  was  required  only  to 
stay  procedure,  and   report  to  the  next  General  Assembly. 
The  Presbytery  resolved,  however,  to  proceed  immediately 
to  the  ordination.      A  minority  of  the  Court  appealed  to  the 
superior  judicatories,  but  this  appeal  was  set  aside.      The 
people    then  came  forward   with   special   objections   to   the 
presentee,  but  the  Presbytery  refused  to  consider  them.     The 
parishioners  and  the  minority  in  the  Presbytery   protested 
separately  against  this  resolution,  and  appealed  to  the  Synod. 
There  is  a  standing  order  of  the  Church  that  no  Presbytery 
shall  ordain  in  face  of  an   appeal.      Trampling  upon  tliis 
order,  and  setting  all  the  common  forms  of  procedure  at  de- 
fiance, the  Presbytery  resolved  to  meet  again  at  Culsalmond 
on  the   11th  November,  for  the  purpose  of  completing  the 
settlement.      It  was  another  bleak,  wintry,  snowy  day,  such 
as  that  which  occurred  about  a  year  before  in  the  neighbor- 
ing parish  of  Marnoch,  and  another  such  crowd  assembled. 
But  the  same  wise  counsels  did  not  prevail,  nor  was  the  same 
spirit  manifested  by  the  people.      The  rapid  and  imperious 
movement  of  the   Presbytery  had  created   the  feeling  that 
they  were  stealing  a  march  upon  the  people,  and  trying  to 
do  the  deed  before  legal  check  of  any  kind  could  be  imposed. 
K/ashly  and  most  unwisely  the  people  took  the  check  into 
their  own  hands.      When  the  doors  were  opened,  a  motley 
crowd,  principally  composed  of  strangers  from   a  distance, 
rushed  in,  and  took  such  complete  possession  of  the  building, 
that  it  was  with  extreme  difficulty,  and  by  the  help  only  of 
the  officers  of  justice,  that  the  Presbytery  could  find  their 
way  into  the  Church.      It  was  to  no  purpose  that  they  found 


JET.  6-2.  SETTLEMENT  AT  CULS ALMOND.  277 

an  entrance ;  for  no  sooner  was  the  attempt  made  to  com- 
mence the  proper  business  of  the  Court  than  loud  discordant 
clamors,  rising  from  all  quarters,  drowned  their  voices,  and 
effectually  prevented  all  further  progress.  They  waited  for 
an  hour  or  more — again  and  again  making  the  effort  to  pro- 
ceed, but  making  it  in  vain.  They  retired  at  last  to  the 
manse,  and  there,  in  a  private  room,  and  within  locked  doors, 
this  unhappy  ordination  was  consummated.  The  parish- 
ioners complained  to  the  Commission  of  the  arbitrary  and 
irregular  conduct  of  the  Presbytery,  and  that  Court,  which 
met  on  the  17th  November,  cited  the  parties  complained  of 
to  appear  before  the  ensuing  General  Assembly,  and  in  the 
mean  time,  until  the  protests  and  appeals  which  had  been 
made  were  judicially  disposed  of,  prohibited  Mr.  Middleton 
from  officiating  in  the  parish  of  Culsalmond,  and  instructed 
the  minority  of  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch  to  provide  for  the 
administration  of  sacred  ordinances  in  that  parish.  The 
sentence  of  the  Commission  was  purely  and  exclusively 
spiritual  :  it  touched  no  civil  right — it  carried  with  it  no 
civil  consequence.  It  had  grounds  to  rest  on  disconnected 
with  any  question  about  the  legality  of  the  Veto  Law.  Mr. 
Middleton,  however,  and  the  majority  of  the  Presbytery, 
applied  to  the  Court  of  Session  to  suspend  it,  and  to  prohibit 
its  intimation  and  execution.  Lord  Ivory,  to  whom,  as  Lord 
Ordinary,  their  petition  was  in  the  first  instance  directed, 
refused  to  grant  its  prayer,  on  the  grounds  "  that  there  was 
no  question  now  before  the  Court  as  to  the  legality  of  the 
Veto  Law ;  that  the  civil  rights,  whether  of  the  patron  or 
presentee,  would  stand  perfectly  unscathed,  notwithstanding 
all  that  had  yet  been  done  by  the  Commission  ;  and  that 
the  only  question  here  was,  shall  this  Court  interfere  with 
the  proceedings  of  a  proper  Church  Court,  when  that  Court 
acting  within  its  own  province,  is  dealing  with  a  proper  ec- 
clesiastial  cause,  and  this,  too,  while  that  cause  is  still 
actually  depending  before  them  ?"  The  case  went  before 
the  First  Division  of  the   Court,   and  the  majority  of  the 


278  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

Judges  reversed  the  decision  of  the  Lord  Ordinary.  On  the 
1 0th  March,  1  842,  the  Suspension  and  Interdict  were  granted 
as  craved.  In  delivering  his  opinion,  the  Lord  President 
declared  that  it  was  quite  sufficient  to  bring  this  matter 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court — "  that  a  gross  stigma 
had  been  fixed  on  Mr.  Middleton's  sacred  character  as  a 
minister  of  the  gospel,"  by  his  being  forbidden  for  a  time  to 
officiate  ;  and  that  the  majority  of  the  Presbytery  had  been 
"  degraded  from  their  status  and  functions  as  established 
ministers,  and  their  general  usefulness  and  respectability 
afiected"  by  their  being  overlooked,  and  the  minority  ap- 
pointed to  supply  all  the  ministerial  services  which  the  parish 
of  Culsalmond  required.  At  the  beginning  of  this  con- 
troversy, it  was  alleged  in  defense  of  the  Court  of  Session, 
that  it  had  interfered  only  when  such  civil  rights  as  are 
properly  the  subjects  of  civil  action  were  immediately  in- 
volved. As  broader  and  deeper  invasions  of  the  Church's 
territory  were  made,  the  defense  was  widened  by  its  being 
affirmed  that  the  Civil  Court  w^as  warranted  to  interfere  in 
all  cases  where  civil  rights  w^ere  directly  or  indirectly  af- 
fected. But  now  the  Court  of  Session,  speaking  through  its 
President,  had  given  it  broadly  to  be  understood,  that  if  any 
one  conceived  that  by  the  sentence  of  an  ecclesiastical  court, 
any  injury  had  been  done  to  his  reputation,  or  respectability, 
or  usefulness,  that  was  in  itself  enough  to  justify  the  Court 
in  reviewing,  and  if  it  saw  reason,  in  reversing  the  sentence 
of  which  he  complained.  No  act  of  discipline  could  the 
Church  perform  ;  no  spiritual  censure  or  sentence  of  con- 
demnation could  she  pronounce,  which,  upon  this  ground,  did 
not  lie  open  to  revisal  or  reversal  by  the  Court  of  Session. 
By  assuming  this  prerogative,  that  Court  constituted  itself 
as  the  court  of  last  appeal  in  all  such  cases ;  and  the  Church 
lay  stripped  of  any  supreme  or  exclusive  jurisdiction. 

A  broad  and  patent  way  to  the  Court  of  Session  had 
been  opened,  and  where  Presbyteries  had  gone  before  them, 
individual   ministers   could    find    no    difficulty   of  approach. 


^T.  62.  CONDUCT  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT.  279 

The  minister  of  Stranraer  had  been  accused  of  various  acts 
of  fraud,  and  his  Presbytery  were  proceeding-  in  his  trial, 
when  he  applied  to  the  Civil  Court  "  to  suspend  the  whole 
proceedings  of  the  Presbytery  ;"'  and  "  iurther  to  prohibit, 
interdict,  and  discharge  the  said  Presbytery  from  taking 
cognizance  of  the  pretended  libel."  The  minister  of  Cam- 
busnethan  had  been  found  guilty  of  four  separate  acts  of 
theft,  and  the  Presbytery  were  about  to  depose  him,  when 
he  raised  an  action  of  reduction  in  the  Court  of  Session,  and 
obtained  an  interdict  against  their  proceeding.  Mr.  Clark, 
the  presentee  to  Lethendy,  who  was  living  in  the  manse  of 
which  he  had  taken  possession,  was  accused  of  repeated  acts 
of  drunkenness,  and  the  Presbytery  of  Dunkeld  had  entered 
upon  the  investigation  of  these  charges,  with  a  view  to 
deprive  him  of  his  license.  But  he  too  had  recourse  to  the 
great  Protector,  and  an  interdict  against  the  Presbytery  had 
been  issued. 

While  actions  and  interdicts  were  multiplying — each  new 
encumbrance  thrown  before  the  Church  making  it  more  dif- 
ficult for  her  to  proceed — the  Government  refused  to  interiere. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  parliamentary  session  of  1842, 
Sir  Robert  Peel  informed  the  House  that  he  had  no  legislative 
measure  in  contemplation.  Two  months  afterward,  the  Home 
Secretary,  Sir  James  Graham,  repeated  the  announcement, 
adding  to  it  the  declaration  that  the  Government  was  resolved 
"  to  stand  by  the  law  of  the  land,  as  laid  down  by  the  civil 
tribunals  of  the  country."  The  member  for  Argyleshire,  Mr. 
Campbell  of  Monzie,  moved  the  appointment  of  a  select  com- 
mittee of  inquiry ;  but  his  motion  was  negatived  by  a  large 
majority,  the  Government  lending  all  its  weight  to  oppose  his 
motion.  Early  in  May,  the  determination  to  do  nothing,  but 
to  leave  the  Church  to  continue  the  conflict  as  she  best  could, 
appeared  suddenly  to  have  been  relinquished.  This  was  due  to 
a  most  untoward  event  which  now  occurred,  an  event  fraught 
with  incalculable  evil.  When  the  negotiations  springing  out  of 
Sir  George  Sinclair's  proposal  terminated,  there  was  a  deep 


280  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

and  very  general  conviction,  that  all  hope  of  any  adjustment, 
based  upon  Lord  Aberdeen's  measure,  was  worse  than  nu- 
gatory. There  were  one  or  two  members,  however,  of  the 
Non-Intrusion  Committee  who  thought  otherwise,  and  by 
whom  an  active  clerical  canvass  was  commenced,  with  the 
view  of  forming  a  new  party,  drawn  from  the  evangelical 
ranks.  Dr.  Simpson  of  Kirknewton,  and  Dr.  Leishman  of 
Govan,  were  the  leaders  of  this  disastrous  movement.  At 
the  meeting  of  the  Synod  of  Glasgow  and  Ayr,  which  took 
place  in  April,  the  latter  of  these  two  clergymen  declared, 
that  already,  within  the  bounds  of  that  synod,  there  were  forty 
prepared  to  accept  of  that  settlement  which  the  Committee 
had  repudiated.  This  party  had  not  confined  their  operations 
to  Scotland;  if  they  had,  their  movement  had  been  com- 
paratively harmless.  They  had  opened  private  negotiations 
with  men  in  power,  the  bitter  fruits  of  which  immediately 
appeared.  Mr.  Campbell  of  Monzie  had  undertaken  to  intro- 
duce the  Duke  of  Argj'le's  Bill  into  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  the  4th  May  was  the  day  fixed  for  its  second  reading. 
At  the  last  hour — no  time  for  consultation  given — the  hon- 
orable member  was  informed  that  the  Government  had  it  in 
contemplation  to  introduce  a  measure  themselves,  which  they 
believed  would  be  satisfactory  ;  and  he  was  requested  to  with- 
draw his  Bill.  He  consented  to  do  so,  cherishing  the  natural 
belief,  that  with  the  knowledge  so  abundantly  possessed  by 
the  Government  of  what  alone  would  satisfy,  its  measure 
would  at  least  be  one  in  which  the  Church  could  acquiesce. 
But  when  Sir  James  Graham  informed  the  House  that  it  was 
in  consequence  of  recent  communications  from  Scotland  that 
the  Government  had  been  induced  to  interfere,  and  still  more, 
when  he  presented  to  the  House  a  general  outline  of  the 
measure,  it  was  apparent  that  nothing  beyond  Lord  Aber- 
deen's Bill,  with  the  added  clause,  was  contemplated  ;  and 
that  the  hope  of  success  entertained  by  the  Government  origin- 
ated in  the  belief  that  the  evangelical  party  was  at  last  break- 
ing up,  and  that  so  many  would  join  *'  the  forty"  as  to  make 


JET  62.  LETTER  TO  MR.  BRUCE.  281 

it  both  safe  and  desirable  for  Government  to  interfere.  So  soon 
as  this  appeared,  Mr.  Maule,  Mr.  Rntherfnrd,  Mr.  Patrick  M. 
Stewart,  and  other  tried  parliamentary  friends  of  the  cause, 
resisted  the  proposal  of  postponement,  and  urged  most  stren- 
uously that  the  debate  should  go  on.  They  pressed  the  matter 
to  a  division,  and  M'ere  left  in  a  minority  of  43  to  131. 

The  General  Assembly  was  now  at  hand,  and  Government 
waited  to  note  its  proceedings,  as  an  index  for  guiding  its  own 
course.  It  was  destined  to  be  the  last  Assembly  of  the  United 
Church  of  Scotland.  Beset  and  beleaguered  on  every  side, 
the  evangelical  majority  held  fast  its  ground,  and  showed 
still  an  unbroken  front.  But  the  difficulties  which  it  had  to 
encounter  had  now  greatly  increased — the  legal  entanglements 
had  become  at  once  more  numerous  and  more  embarrassing — 
the  open  anarchy  which  had  broken  out  was  rapidly  spreading 
— and  now,  last  of  all,  and  worst  of  all,  there  were  dark  ru- 
mors of  internal  disunion  and  defection.  In  the  judgment 
of  tlie  wisest  and  best  of  its  leaders,  the  period  had  arrived 
for  a  final  declaration  of  principles  and  purpose,  to  be  followed 
by  some  decisive  course  of  action.  The  approaching  meeting 
of  the  General  i^ssembly  would  supply  the  fit  occasion  for 
making  this  Declaration  ;  but  for  some  weeks  previously,  it 
was  matter  of  grave  and  anxious  consultation  in  what  form 
it  should  be  couched,  and  to  what  special  objects  it  should 
be  directed.  Dr.  Chalmers,  who  was  not  in  Edinburgh  at 
this  time,  embodied  his  own  views  in  the  following  letter  to 
the  Bev.  Mr.  Bruce: 

"  April  lOth,  1842. 

"  My  dear  Sir — In  the  present  state  of  our  Church  con- 
troversy, the  first  and  nearest  concern  is  the  integrity  of  our 
jurisdiction. 

"  After  the  treatment  we  have  received  both  from  Gov- 
ernment and  Parliament,  as  well  as  the  Court  below,  the 
time  seems  now  to  be  fully  come  when  we  should  put  forth 
a  Claim  of  Rights,  with  a  statement  of  what  we  hold  to  be 
our  duty,  along  with  our  determination  to  adhere  to  it. 


:82  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

"  I  hold  it  a  great  advantage,  that  in  the  preparation  of 
such  a  document,  we  can  set  ourselves  forth  in  the  light  of 
a  suffering  and  aggrieved  party — not  as  claimants,  but  as 
complainers  ;  that  is,  not  as  seeking  for  ourselves  any  new 
powers,  but  as  protesting  against  an  invasion  made  upon  our 
old  liberties,  and  which  have  been  ours  in  undisturbed  pos- 
session for  many  generations.  One  great  benefit  of  such  an 
attitude  is,  that  whereas  to  meet  the  allegation  of  seeking 
power  for  ourselves,  we  felt  compelled  to  say,  in  reply  and 
vindication,  that  it  was  but  the  power  of  giving  effect  to  the 
dissents  of  the  people — we  do  not  need  thus  to  mix  up  one 
question  with  another,  but  may  confine  ourselves  simply  to  a 
demand  for  justice  against  the  aggressions  of  the  Civil  Courts 
on  the  part  which  belongs  to  the  Church,  and  to  the  Church 
exclusively,  in  the  collation  of  the  ministerial  office. 

"  I  have  all  along  been  impressed  with  the  deadly  mischief 
that  has  arisen  from  the  complication  of  our  question — be- 
tween the  Church's  power  to  regulate  in  this  matter,  and  the 
propriety  of  our  specific  regulation.  In  every  conference  or 
negotiation  with  our  civil  rulers,  I  would  keep  exclusively  by 
the  former  of  these  topics ;  and  unless  forced  upon  us  by  them, 
would  keep  out  the  other,  as  an  irrelevancy,  that  was  not  only 
unnecessary  but  uncalled  for ;  but  more  than  this,  because  it 
operated  as  a  hurtful  distraction,  and  served  to  obscure  and 
mystify  a  question  which,  if  looked  to  with  singleness  of  eye, 
might  by  this  time  have  been  so  hghted  up,  as  to  have  made 
its  whole  subject-matter  tran.sparent  to  all.  When  we  asked 
the  Parliament  to  establish  and  endow  Presbyterianism,  we 
did  not  ask  them  to  become  Presbyterians.  When  we  ask 
them  to  protect  our  spiritual  independence  from  the  invasion 
of  the  courts  below,  so  as  that  we  shall  be  suffered  to  give 
effect  to  our  own  principle  of  Non-Intrusion,  I  would  ask  no 
recognition  of  this  principle  from  them,  or  that  they  should 
become  Non-Intrusionists. 

"  I  should  therefore  rejoice,  if,  in  preparing  a  Claim  of 
Rights,  it  could  be  so  managed,  that  Non-Intrusion  were 


^T.  62.  LETTER  TO  MR.  BRUCE.  283 

not  once  mentioned  in  it.  There  might  be  a  necessity  for 
adverting  to  it  in  the  historical  part  of  the  Memorial,  but 
there  is  both  a  high  principle  and  a  high  policy  in  its  not 
being  named — save  in  the  general  as  a  principle  held  by  us 
to  be  essential  to  the  Presbytery,  and  which  the  Church,  there- 
fore, is  resolved  never  to  abandon. 

"  To  satisfy  you  that  this  is  no  crotchet,  let  me  state  the 
grounds  on  which  my  view  rests,  in  what  appears  to  me  the 
following  grave  and  substantial  considerations : 

"  1st.  To  set  the  Parliamentary  mind  a-going  on  two  points 
instead  of  one,  is  to  foreclose  all  hope  of  its  ever  attaining  a 
clear  view  of  our  question.  One  idea  at  a  time  is  enough 
for  any  corporate  body  to  discuss  or  to  decide  upon  ;  and  the 
agitation  of  two  in  that  assembly  of  several  hundreds,  will 
give  rise  to  a  labyrinth  of  confusion  that  must  turn  out  to  be 
quite  inextricable.  Lord  Lome's  pamphlet  owes  all  its  clear- 
ness and  power  to  his  having  kept  by  the  single  topic  of  the 
Church's  rightful  jurisdiction  ;  and  what  is  the  alone  subject 
of  his  letter  to  the  Peers,  should  be  the  alone  subject  of  our 
manifesto,  both  to  Peers  and  Commoners. 

"  2d.  It  is  the  proper  topic  addressed  to  the  proper  quar- 
ter. It  is  not  for  Parliament  to  take  up  the  ecclesiastical 
merits  of  the  principle  of  Non-Intrusion  ;  nor  would  I  ask 
from  them  any  opinion  on  a  question  which  is  ours,  not  theirs. 
It  is  an  internal  question  wherewith  we  alone  have  to  do. 
The  other  is  a  boundary  question — the  only  proper  one  be- 
tween the  two  parties — the  line  of  demarkation  between  the 
civil  and  the  ecclesiastical.  I  would  not  ask  their  approval 
to  ordain  a  certain  amount  of  education  in  Hebrew  ;  but 
should  an  inferior  court  resist  this  our  ordination,  I  would 
ask  their  protection  from  the  molestation  thus  given  to  us. 
As  little  would  I  ask  their  approval  ere  I  ordained  a  certain 
amount  of  acceptableness  as  essential  to  the  pastoral  relation. 
But  I  ask  protection  from  the  Court  that  steps  beyond  its 
own  domain,  and  has  made  invasion  upon  ours,  for  the  pur- 


284  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

pose  of  compelling  us  to  form  the  pastoral  relation  on  other 
terms  than  we  ourselves  have  determined. 

"  3d.  I  feel  it  a  sort  of  injustice  to  the  cause  of  our  spirit- 
ual independence — or  which  is  tantamount  to  this,  to  the 
sacred  cause  of  the  headship  of  Christ,  to  be  condescending 
on  the  specific  question  of  Non-Intrusion — when  so  high  a 
matter  is  at  issue  as  the  great  generic  and  comprehensive 
privilege  which  is  inherit  with  every  true  church,  of  deciding 
this  and  all  other  purely  ecclesiastical  questions  for  them- 
selves. To  speak  of  the  enactment,  when  the  thing  in  jeop- 
ardy is  the  enacting  power,  is  bringing  this  power  into  greater 
jeopardy  still.  It  is  almost  like  the  submission  of  the  enact- 
ment to  the  tribunal  of  civil  authority.  On  this  ground  I 
would  never  ask  from  the  legislature  a  recognition  of  the 
principle  of  Non-Intrusion.  It  is  a  far  greater  thing  which 
is  at  stake — the  right  of  giving  effect  to  this  and  every  other 
principle  of  a  purely  spiritual  nature  which  seemeth  to  us  a 
sound  one.  We  do  not  ask  the  bestowal  of  even  this  right 
at  their  hands.  We  only  ask  their  recognition  of  it  as  a 
right  which  both  originally  and  constitutionally  belongs  to 
us  :  or  rather  we  stand  before  them  as  an  aggrieved  party 
(which,  as  I  have  already  said,  were  an  immense  advantage), 
and  ask  their  protection  from  an  invasion  on  that  sacred  pre- 
rogative, which  both  in  the  nature  of  things  and  by  law  be- 
longs to  us.  This  is  our  high  ground,  and  we  should  keep 
by  it. 

"  4th.  There  is  still  another  ground  on  which  I  should 
like  our  struggle  M'ith  the  civil  power  to  be  for  the  genus 
rather  than  for  the  species.  It  is  not  merely  that  if  the  one 
were  secured  the  other  would  follow  ;  but  that  the  one,  as 
being  altogether  of  a  more  catholic  and  comprehensive  char- 
acter, commands  for  itself  a  larger  sympathy  and  respect, 
not  in  England  only,  but  throughout  the  whole  of  reformed 
Christendom.  It  is  that  great  Erastian  controversy,  in 
which  all  states  and  all  churches  have  a  common  interest. 
The  other  question  has  more,  certainly,  of  a  local  character. 


JET.  62.  LETTER  TO  MR.  BRUCE.  285 

It  is  a  Scottish  peculiarity,  which  not  even  our  near  friends 
and  neighbors,  the  Methodists  of  England,  can  altogether  go 
along  with;  and  I  do  confess  that  I  have  often  felt  when 
Non-Intrusion  was  spoken  of  out  of  Scotland,  that  it  was  the 
inopportune  presentation  of  such  a  topic  as  gave  a  certain 
cast  of  provincial  littleness  to  a  cause  which  might  be  so 
stated  as  to  create  a  responsive  and  deep-felt  interest  in 
every  land  where  national  establishments  of  Christianity  were 
known. 

"  5th.  I  have  not  exhausted  these  considerations,  and  could 
state  other  and  distinct  ones  ;  but  in  addition  to  these,  which 
might  be  called  the  proprieties  of  the  case  in  itself,  let  me 
give  my  own  impression  of  what  may  be  termed  the  policy 
of  the  question — though  I  by  no  means  hinge  our  determin- 
ation as  to  the  right  method  of  treating  it  on  a  matter  so  un- 
certain as  the  likelihoods  of  success.  But  I  do  feel  it  to  be 
a  grievous  deviation  from  all  sound  tact  and  management,  to 
be  unnecessarily  arousing  the  antipathies  of  the  English  Par- 
liament, by  dunning  into  their  ears  our  ecclesiastical  topic  of 
Non-Intrusion,  when  we  have  other  such  congenial  and  in- 
telligible topics  on  which  to  address  them,  as  co-ordinate 
jurisdiction.  Articles  of  Union,  the  faith  of  national  treaties, 
the  contents  and  enactments  of  their  own  statute-book,  the 
relations  and  other  generalities  which  pertain  to  the  connec- 
tion between  Church  and  State.  What  makes  me  all  the 
less  able  to  comprehend  this  constant  and  inveterate  tendency 
to  the  specific  rather  than  to  the  general  question,  and  that 
both  in  and  out  of  season,  is,  that  after  all  the  general  is  our 
vital  question,  and  the  particular  constitution  of  our  Patron- 
age is  not  so.  It  seems  to  me  a  further  aggravation  of  this 
impolicy — as  serving  to  make  the  breach  between  the  Church 
and  the  State  all  the  more  hopeless — that  our  vital  is  not 
their  vital  question  ;  and  therefore  did  we  but  confine  our- 
selves to  the  former,  we  may  carry  it  our  own  way — where- 
as, if  we  insist  on  the  latter,  which  is  not  our  vital  question, 
but  may  be  theirs,  it  might  lead  to  a  misunderstanding  quite 


286  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

irreparable.  There  are  many,  I  believe,  in  the  Senate-house 
who  would  sooner  see  the  Establishment  destroyed  than  give 
a  vote,  which  in  their  own  name  should  expressly  recognize 
the  principle  of  Non-Intrusion  ;  and  who  yet,  rather  than 
venture  on  the  sacrifice  of  a  great  national  institute,  would 
consent  that  the  power  of  the  patron,  and  of  the  civil  courts, 
should  cease  from  the  moment  that  the  presentee  should  be 
handed  over  to  the  Church  Courts.  Let  us  keep,  therefore, 
on  the  right  track  of  negotiation  ;  and  we  may  not  only  all 
the  more  effectually  secure  the  attention  of  the  Legislature 
to  our  cause,  but  may  get  infinitely  better  terms  by  it.  In 
any  protest,  or  remonstrance,  or  claim  of  rights,  that  we  in- 
tend for  the  ears  of  the  Legislature,  let  us  address  them  as 
statesmen,  by  speaking  of  the  constitutional  standing  and  rela- 
tions between  the  two  bodies  ;  and  not  as  theologians  or  eccle- 
siastics by  speaking  of  Non-Intrusion. 

"  But  it  may  be  said,  is  not  this  casting  Non-Intrusion 
overboard  ?  No,  it  is  only  providing  each  topic  with  its 
right  theatre,  and  so  taking  the  best  method  for  bringing  each 
to  a  right  issue.  England,  and  more  especially  its  Parliament, 
is  the  arena  on  which  the  battle  for  the  Church's  jurisdic- 
tion is  to  be  fought.  Scotland,  and  more  especially  its  General 
Assembly,  is  the  arena  on  which  to  plead  and  carry  the  cause 
of  Non-Intrusion.  But  indeed  it  is  most  true  that  in  one 
sense  I  am  ready  to  cast  Non-Intrusion  overboard ;  and  that 
to  make  room  for  it  in  its  best  form,  which  is  the  abolition 
of  Patronage.  Still  it  is  in  Scotland  where  this  cause  has, 
in  the  first  instance,  to  be  launched  and  set  afloat ;  and  that 
both  in  the  General  Assembly,  where  the  ancient  protest 
against  it  ought  to  be  renewed,  and  throughout  the  country 
at  large,  whence  petitions  might  be  made  to  ascend  from  one 
end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  It  is  not  until  backed  by  these 
that  the  question  should  come  within  the  walls  of  Parlia- 
ment. When  the  General  Assembly,  the  supreme  govern- 
ing power  of  the  Church,  makes  appearance  there,  it  should 
be  in  defense  of  her  own  invaded  privileges — her  own  violated 


.'ET.  62.  LETTER  TO  MR.  BRUCE.  287 

jurisdiction.  When  the  abolition  of  Patronage  is  the  ques- 
tion, then  let  the  whole  Church  make  appearance — the  gov- 
ernors with  their  protest,  but  that  in  conjunction  with  the 
governed,  that  is,  the  people  with  their  complaints  and  re- 
monstrances from  every  part  of  the  Scottish  territory. 

"  I  am  sickened  to  despair  with  the  argument  that  we  must 
foist  in  Non-Intrusion  upon  every  occasion,  and  before  Avhat- 
ever  party,  lest  we  should  lose  our  hold  of  the  people  of  Scot- 
land. Have  we  no  access  to  the  people  but  via  London  ? 
They  are  at  our  own  door ;  and  might  not  we  in  daily  and 
immediate  converse  with  them,  make  it  as  clear  as  day  that  it 
is  for  their  cause  the  church  is  now  periling  all  which  belongs 
to  her  in  the  world  ?  Withm  the  limits  of  our  own  territory, 
let  us  take  our  full  swing  of  Non-Intrusion  and  Anti-patron- 
age, and  above  all,  let  the  people  be  made  to  see,  that,  in 
defense  of  their  Christian  liberties,  the  ministers  are  putting 
to  hazard  if  not  their  lives  at  least  their  livelihoods.  They 
may  perhaps  not  see  this  effectually,  till  these  livelihoods 
shall  have  been  actually  wrested  from  us.  This  may  be  or 
not.  But  certain  it  is,  that  between  a  resolved  clergy  and 
a  confiding,  attached  people,  we  have  the  materials  for  a  body 
of  strength,  which  with  the  blessing  of  God  will  turn  out  to 
be  irresistible.  And  therefore  it  is  that  I  am  so  desirous  of 
an  engagement,  entered  into  by  as  many  hundreds  as  will 
have  vigor  of  principle,  and,  let  me  add,  the  truly  wise  as 
well  as  magnanimous  policy  of  putting  down  their  names  to 
it — that,  rather  than  give  up  the  final  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church  in  things  ecclesiastical,  they  are  willing,  if  the  hand 
of  power  shall  ofler  to  inflict  such  a  violence,  to  be  stripped 
of  all  the  rights  and  advantages  which  belong  to  them  as 
the  ministers  of  a  National  and  Established  Church. 

"  It  is  thus  that  we  might  fix  ourselves  on  our  best  vant- 
age ground  for  a  bold  and  righteous  administration  of  our 
present  affairs  ;  more  especially,  in  the  exercise  of  discipline 
against  all  offenders,  all  delicacy  and  hesitation  of  every  sort 
ought  to  be  given  to  the  winds.      Nothing  will  serve  but  an 


288  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  inn. 

open,  courageous,  and  rectilineal  policy.  Whatever  be  the 
persons,  or  whatever  the  Presbyteries  who  have  defied  the 
authority  of  the  Supreme  Court,  they  should,  if  not  imme- 
diately deposed,  be  immediately  proceeded  against  in  the  way 
that  if  they  will  not  return  to  obedience  must  infallibly  issue 
in  the  wholesale  deposition  of  them  all.  On  this  matter  there 
must  be  no  shrinkings,  nor  do  I  know  aught  of  more  imperi- 
ous obligation,  both  in  respect  of  wisdom  and  principle,  than 
that  the  Church,  in  dealing  with  the  refractory  and  the 
Erastian  members  of  her  own  body,  should  proceed  against 
them  with  a  firm  and  unfaltering  hand.  I  know  they  are 
boasting  of  their  numbers,  and  triumphantly  ask  if  we  can 
depose  sixty.  What  a  noble  reply  should  we  be  prepared  to 
make,  if  we  can  say  yes,  or  you  must  drive  off  six  hundred. 
Let  the  Government  take  their  choice.  Let  all  who  have  a 
patriotic  regard  for  the  country's  peace  and  welfare,  set  the 
alternative  before  them.  Let  every  man  who  values  the 
blessings  of  an  efficient  Church  decide  the  question  for  him- 
self— Whether  it  were  better  that  so  many  tens  or  twenties 
of  our  disorderly  members  shall  have  an  arrest  laid  upon 
them,  and  that  by  an  appliance  of  the  right  censures  and 
penalties,  even  to  expulsion  from  the  Establishment  if  called 
for  ;  or,  that  as  many  hundreds  shall  be  ejected  from  their 
present  holdings,  and,  thrust  beyond  the  pale  of  the  Estabhsh- 
ment,  shall,  on  the  fields  of  Non-conformity  to  which  they  are 
driven,  join  themselves  with  all  that  is  good  and  wholesome 
among  the  Dissenters,  and,  on  the  strength  of  their  numerous 
congregations  and  followers  among  an  approving  people,  take 
possession  of  the  land  ?  Heaven  grant,  Jlrst,  that  the  clear 
and  full  exhibition  of  this  as  the  inevitable  result  of  their  in- 
fatuation, be  made  before  the  enemies  of  our  Church  ;  and, 
second,  that  seeing  the  infatuation  of  their  ruinous  policy 
they  may  be  led  to  abandon  it. — I  ever  am,  my  dear  Sir, 
yours  most  cordially,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

This  letter  w^as  circulated  among  the  leading  friends  of 


JET.  62,       LETTER  FROM  DR.  GORDON.  289 


the  Church  in  Edinburgh,  and  in  returning  it  to  Mr.  Bruce, 
Dr.  Gordon  wrote  as  follows : 

"  42  St.  Cuthbert  Street,  Thursday  Evening. 

«'  My  dear  Sir — I  have  read  with  great  delight  the  letter 
which  1  now  return,  and  since  reading  it  I  have  hurriedly 
run  over  the  proof  of  our  Claim  and  Declaration.  I  am  sure 
Dr.  Chalmers  will  be  delighted  with  the  latter.  It  is  purely 
a  jurisdiction  claim.  If  500  would  sign  it  we  are  safe — I 
mean  humanly  speaking.  God  may  be  pleased  to  save  us 
by  a  smaller  number,  lest  we  should  boast  and  say,  '  By  my 
hand  I  have  done  it.' 

"  If  I  might  venture  a  remark  on  the  Doctor's  letter,  I 
would  say,  that  his  sharp  language  on  the  prominence  given 
to  the  Non-Intrusion  principle,  is  more  applicable  to  the  Gov- 
ernment than  to  the  Church.  The  only  ground  on  which 
the  former  ever  condescended  to  look  at  our  case,  was  the  no* 
tion  that  they  could  despoil  us  of  our  jurisdiction  by  seemiiig 
to  give  us  large  powers  on  that  one  point ;  and  I  fear  they 
will  continue  to  attempt  ensnaring  us  in  the  same  miserable 
and  pettifogging  way.  They  will  meet  our  higher  and  larger 
claim  with  the  old  cry,  the  Su])reme  Court  has  interpreted 
against  you  all  the  statutes  on  which  you  found.  This, 
therefore,  must  be  the  meaning  of  the  statutes,  and  conse- 
quently the  real  terms  of  the  connection  between  Church  and 
State  for  the  last  130  years,  and  we  see  no  reason  to  alter 
these  terms.  I  am  convinced  that  this  is  the  point  to  which 
they  will  bring  us.  Well ;  be  it  so.  Let  us  follow  the 
course  so  plainly  and  powerfully  laid  out  for  us  by  our  ven- 
erable and  beloved  father.  If  it  come  to  this,  I  tru.st  that 
his  setting  sun  will  exhibit  him  to  Christendom  in  a  brighter 
blaze  than  in  ail  his  other  works — leading  his  brethren  in 
one  of  the  noblest  testimonies  that  have  ever  been  borne  to 
the  glorious  headship  of  our  adorable  Redeemer. — Ever,  my 
dear  Sir,  most  affectionately  yours,         Robert  Gordon. 

"  The  Rev.  John  Bruce." 
VOL.  IV. — N 


290  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

The  framing  of  that  most  important  document,  in  which 
the  Church  was  to  embody  a  final  statement  of  her  princi- 
ples and  her  claims,  her  wrongs  and  her  resolution,  was  en- 
trusted to  Mr.  Dunlop,  who,  in  transmitting  a  proof  of  it  to 
Dr.  Chalmers,  says  : 

"  Edinburgh,  May  Uk,  1842. 

"  My  dear  Sm — I  now  send  you  a  proof  of  our  proposed 
manifesto,  which  I  have  endeavored  to  draw  up  as  much  as 
possible  in  accordance  with  the  views  set  forth  in  your  letter 
to  Mr.  Bruce. 

"  I  agree  with  you  in  the  propriety  of  putting  the  great 
question  as  to  our  jurisdiction  in  the  forefront  of  the  battle — 
or,  indeed,  making  it  the  battle  ;  although  my  experience 
leads  me  to  an  opposite  conclusion  from  you,  as  to  the  resist- 
ance to  be  given  it.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  judge  of 
the  sentiments  and  feelings  of  statesmen,  I  think  their  hos- 
tility to  the  Church's  independence  is  far  more  intense  and 
inveterate  than  their  hostility  to  the  people  having  a  voice, 
and  most  of  them  would  willingly  barter  the  latter  for  the 
former — i.e.,  acknowledge  it  if  tve  would  give  up  the  other. 
This  at  my  last  interview  I  was  satisfied  was  the  predom- 
inant feeling  on  the  part  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  who,  you  will 
remember,  in  alluding  to  Lord  Aberdeen's  Bill,  on  a  discus- 
sion upon  the  Assembly  Hall  grant,  said  that  we  might  get 
more  power  to  the  peoiole,  but  we  would  never  again  get  so 
much  to  the  Church.  Still,  though  my  views  as  to  this  are 
directly  opposed  to  yours,  they  lead  me  to  the  same  conclu- 
sion. I  would  put  this  matter  the  more  forward,  because  I 
am  convinced  that  about  it  the  real  fight  will  be  ;  and  make 
that  part  of  our  fortifications  the  stronger,  because  there  the 
most  violent  attacks  will  be  made. — Believe  me  to  be  yours 
very  faithfully,  A.  DuNLor. 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Chalmers." 

The  General    Assembly   was   summoned  to  convene  on 


JET.  62.  THE  GENERAL  ASSExMBLY  OF  1842.  291 

Thursday  the  19th  May,*  and  on  the  forenoon  of  that  day 
the  Marquess  of  Bute,  as  Lord  High  Commissioner,  held  his 
first  levee  in  the  Throne  Room  of  the  Palace  of  Holyrood,  in 
which  his  Grace  had  taken  up  his  residence.  Never  before 
did  so  numerous  or  so  brilliant  a  circle  gather  round  Her 
Majesty's  representative.  The  levee  over,  a  long  array  of 
splendid  carriages,  flanked  by  cavalry  on  either  side,  wheeled 
out  of  the  Palace  Court.  The  ring  of  martial  music  filled 
the  ear,  and  the  flash  of  glittering  sabres  struck  the  eye  of 
the  assembled  multitude,   as  the  gorgeous  cavalcade  swept 

*  '■  Our  Assembly  begins  to  sit  to-morrow  fortnight.  The  appoint- 
ment of  the  Marquess  of  Bute  to  be  our  Commissioner  is  variously  in- 
terpreted. That  the  object  of  this  arrangement  is  a  special  one,  there 
can  be  no  doub|,  as  in  usual  times  the  office  is  conferred  on  a  poor 
nobleman,  whereas  Lord  Bute  is  possessed  of  great  influence  and  great 
wealth;  and  withal  had  earned  the  gratitude  of  our  Church  by  his 
munificence  in  the  cause  of  Church  Extension.  Some  are  apprehensive 
that  the  object  is  to  conciliate  so  many  as  might  convert  the  minority 
into  a  majority  on  the  side  of  Lord  Aberdeen's  Bill,  with  some  plausi- 
ble modification.  Let  me  hope,  on  the  other  hand,  that  our  majority 
will  remain  firm  and  unbroken ;  and  should  such  be  the  result  of  their 
experiment,  let  me  further  hope  that  the  Government  will  be  wise 
enough  to  conclude  that  ours  is  a  position  from  which  we  are  not  to  be 
driven,  and  that  they  will  desist  from  their  attempts  to  force  or  to 
carry  it. 

"  The  Conservatives  have  used  us  very  ill ;  but  I  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve are  now  somewhat  staggered  at  the  resolute  and  unbending  front 
of  the  majority  in  the  Church.  They  flattered  themselves  that  we  wouM 
give  in  rather  than  lose  our  endowments  ;  and  they  find  it  a  more  dif- 
ficult problem  than  they  had  first  counted  on,  now  that  they  are  opening 
to  the  conviction  of  such  a  disruption,  in  the  event  of  their  persevering 
in  their  present  policy,  as  will  lead  to  the  separation  from  the  National 
Church  of  so  many  hundreds  of  her  best  clergy,  as  could,  on  the  strength 
of  their  respectability  and  influence,  carry  the  great  bulk  of  the  popu- 
lation along  with  them,  and  resolving  themselves  into  a  Home  Mission, 
would  take  possession  of  the  land. 

"  We  are  now  beginning  to  organize  the  country  into  defensive  asso- 
ciations ;  if  necessary  to  relinquish  our  present  incomes,  which  of  course 
w-ould  be  left  in  possession  of  a  Church  then  Erastianized,  we  may 
from  their  contributions  obtain  such  support  as  might  be  raised  for  the 
Non-Erastian  Church  of  Scotland." — Letter  from  Dr.  Chalmers  to  J. 
Lennox,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  dated  4th  May,  1842. 


292  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

round  the  base  of  the  Caltoii-Hill  on  its  way  to  the  ancient 
church  of  St.  Giles.  After  sermon  by  Dr.  Gordon,  the  As- 
sembly adjourned  to  St.  Andrew's  Church.  The  Court  having 
been  constituted,  proceeded  to  make  up  the  roll  of  members. 
From  the  Presbytery  of  Strathbogie  there  was  a  double  re- 
turn, the  deposed  ministers  having  elected  and  deputed  their 
own  representatives  to  the  Assembly.  When  it  was  moved 
by  Mr.  Dunlop  that  their  return  should  be  altogether  disre- 
garded, the  motion  was  warmly  opposed  by  Dr.  Cook,  who 
strenuously  asserted  that  the  Assembly  should  not  hold  these 
seven  ministers  as  having  been  deposed.  Dr.  Chalmers 
scarcely  ever  took  part  in  the  minor  business  of  the  Assem- 
bly, but  this  startling  proposition  excited  him  for  once  to  do 
so.  "  Moderator,"  he  said,  "  this  is  the  first  time  in  my  life 
that  I  ever  heard  it  asserted,  that  the  dissent  of  a  minority 
superseded  the  sentence  of  a  court  passed  by  an  overwhelming 
majority.  The  proposition  is  in  substance,  that  those  deposed 
by  the  General  Assembly  of  1841,  shall,  nevertheless,  be 
allowed  to  sit  as  members  in  the  General  Assembly  of  1842. 
Why,  Sir,  the  proposition  is  so  very -monstrous,  and  so  fully 
comes  in  conflict — so  palpably  and  immediately  comes  in  con- 
flict— with  a  first  principle,  that  I  can  not  hold  it  to  be  a 
case  for  argument  at  all.  But  that  such  a  proposition  should 
be  made,  that  such  a  proposition  should  ever  be  thought  of, 
is  a  very  instructive  fact.  It  discovers  to  what  a  fearful  ex- 
tent of  anarchy  and  disorder  the  enemy  within — whether  by 
the  instigation  and  encouragement  of  the  enemy  without,  I 
can  not  say — are  resolved  to  plunge  the  Church  of  Scotland; 
how  they  are  resolved  to  strip  her  of  the  last  vestige  of  that 
authority  which  belongs  to  every  distinct  body,  governed  by 
distinct  office-bearers.  Never..  Sir,  would  T  say,  has  the  char- 
acter of  the  outrage  inflicted  upon  the  Church  come  out  in 
such  bold  relief  as  at  the  present  moment,  when  we  have  just 
met  under  the  countenance  of  Her  Majesty  ;  when  we  have 
been  ushered  to  our  places  with  the  form  and  circumstance  of  a 
great  national  Institute  ;   and  when  we  are  now  holding  our 


^T.  G2.        SPEECH  IiN  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  '293 

deliberations  in  the  presence  and  hearing  of  Royalty,  repre- 
sented by  one  of  the  most  respected  of  our  noblemen.  We 
are  now  congregated  in  this  our  first  meeting  of  the  present 
Assembly,  by  the  authority  and  appointment  of  the  last  meet- 
ing of  the  last  General  Assembly.  And,  Sir,  in  these  cir- 
cumstances, what  is  the  first  thing  we  are  called  upon  to  do? 
Why,  to  pluck  from  our  archives  the  most  solemn  deed  of 
that  most  solemn  convocation,  and  to  trample  it  down  under 
our  feet  as  a  thing  of  insignificance  or  a  thing  of  naught.  It 
is  under  the  authority  of  last  General  Assembly  that  we  now 
hold  our  places,  and  are  now  met  as  a  deliberative  body  ; 
and  I  must  say  that  if  there  is  any  thing  more  than  another 
which  could  unsettle  all  men's  notions  of  order  and  authority, 
it  would  be  the  success  of  the  present  proposition.  It  would 
truly  be  an  egregious  travesty,  it  would  make  a  farce  of  the 
proceedings  of  our  General  Assembly,  a  complete  laughing- 
stock of  our  Church,  were  there  left  her  no  authority  to  en- 
force obedience  from  her  own  sons.  It  would  present  a  strange 
contrast  between  the  impotence  of  our  doings,  and  the  pa- 
geantry of  our  forms — between  the  absolute  nothingness  of 
the  Assembly,  and  the  mighty  notes  of  preparation — the  im- 
posing cavalcade  which  accompanied  us — the  pealing  of  the 
clarionets  with  which  we  were  conducted  into  the  House  on 
the  present  occasion.  I  must  say,  there  is  not  a  heart  that 
beats  with  more  gratification,  or  feels  more  elevation,  than 
my  own,  at  the  countenance  given  to  our  venerable  Church 
at  present  by  the  high  and  honorable  of  the  land  ;  but  ours 
will  be  the  fault,  if,  untrue  to  ourselves,  if  untrue  to  our  priv- 
ileges, we  shall  allow  our  Church  to  become  a  sounding 
brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal — a  hissing  and  an  astonishment 
to  all  passers-by." 

Mr.  Dunlop's  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  which 
gave  an  earnest,  good  and  sure,  of  the  resolute  spirit  by  which 
all  the  actings  of  this  Assembly  were  characterized.  On  the 
first  day  of  its  meeting,  the  representatives  from  the  only  re- 
cognized Presbytery  of  Strathbogie,  informed  the  House  that 


294  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

interdicts  from  the  Court  of  Session  had  been  served  upon 
them,  prohibiting  them  from  taking  their  seats  as  members 
of  the  Assembly.  The  Supreme  Court  vindicated  her  au- 
thority against  this  violation  of  her  privileges,  by  entering  the 
names  of  the  interdicted  members  on  the  roll,  and  identifying 
herself  with  their  act  in  sitting  and  voting  as  members  of  the 
Assembly,  in  such  a  way  that  the  blow  aimed  at  them  was 
made  to  fall  upon  the  Church  collectively.  The  other  inter- 
dicts of  the  Civil  Court,  by  which  the  discipline  of  the  Church 
was  interfered  with,  were  treated  with  the  same  silent  and 
dignified  disregard.  The  ministers  of  Carnbusnethan  and 
Stranraer  were  deposed  from  the  sacred  office.  Mr.  Clark 
was  deprived  of  his  license.  The  settlement  of  Mr.  Middle- 
ton  as  minister  of  Culsalmond  was  rescinded,  and  those  min- 
insters  who  held  communion  with  the  deposed  clergymen  of 
Strathbogie,  were  suspended  from  the  exercise  of  their  judi- 
cial functions  as  members  of  Church  Courts,  till  the  March 
Commission  of  the  following  year.  While  the  Assembly  ac- 
quitted itself  in  this  determined  manner  of  its  severer  duties, 
it  had  other  and  more  gracious  offices  to  discharge.  A  most 
encouraging  report  was  given  in  by  Mr.  Dunlop,  of  the  pro- 
gress made  during  the  past  year  in  all  the  varied  fields  of 
Christian  and  philanthropic  enterprise.  The  recent  strife  and 
contention,  it  might  have  been  imagined  would  have  quenched 
or  absorbed  the  Church's  Christian  zeal.  But  it  was  sig- 
nally the  reverse.  The  gross  revenue  of  the  Church's  schemes 
for  ten  months  in  1841,  exceeded  by  £8000  that  for  the 
whole  of  the  preceding  year  ;  and  looking  back  to  the  time 
when  the  evangelical  interest  became  predominant,  not  only 
had  three  additional  schemes  of  Christian  usefulness  been 
added  to  the  two  then  existing,  but  the  whole  sum  raised  for 
religious  purposes  in  1842,  was  six  times  greater  than  that 
raised  in  1834,  each  intervening  year  witnessing  a  growing 
increase.  Coupling  this  general  result  with  manifold  local 
indications;  with  the  greater  prevalence  of  prayer  meeting* 
over  the  counjry  ;   with  the  remarkable  awakenings  at  Kil- 


^.T.  G2.  THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS.  295 

syth,  Blairgowrie,  and  Dundee,  we  become  convinced  that 
these  years  of  turbulence  and  strife  had  drawn,  or  driven,  the 
Church  nearer  to  the  heavenly  fountain  of  light  and  strength 
— had  deepened  her  faith — had  purified  and  intensified  her 
devotion.  The  two  great  discussions  of  the  Assembly,  and 
the  only  ones  in  which  Dr.  Chalmers  took  a  part,  were  those 
relative  to  Patronage,  and  to  the  Church's  Claim  of  Right. 
Un  Monday  the  23d  May,  Dr.  Cunningham  moved  a  resolu- 
tion to  the  efiect  that,  as  both  in  itself  a  grievance,  and  as 
the  main  cause  of  the  difficulties  in  which  the  Church  had 
been  involved,  Patronage  ought  to  be  abolished.  This  motion, 
which  was  supported  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  was  carried  by  a  ma- 
jority of  216  to  147.  For  more  than  half  a  century  after 
the  restoration  of  Patronage  by  the  Act  1712,  the  General 
Assembly  had  annually  renewed  her  protest  against  this 
grievance,  and  had  given  it  as  an  instruction  to  the  Com- 
mission to  take  all  suitable  opportunities  for  efTecting  its 
removal ;  and  now  once  more,  after  the  lapse  of  another  half 
century,  and  on  the  last  opportunity  given  for  doing  so,  the 
ancient  testimony  against  the  yoke  of  Patronage  was  re- 
newed. 

On  Tuesday  the  24th,  Dr.  Chalmers  moved  the  adoption 
of  the  "  Claim  of  Rights."  This  remarkable  document  is 
inserted  in  the  Appendix  to  this  volume, *=  as  being  the  clear- 
est and  most  consecutive,  the  most  condensed  and  most  com- 
prehensive statement  of  the  great  principles  which  the  Church 
asserted — of  the  Scriptural,  constitutional,  and  legal  grounds 
on  which  these  principles  rested — of  the  violence  done  to  them 
by  the  Civil  Court — of  the  wrongs  which  the  Church  had 
consequently  sustained,  and  the  claim  for  protection  which 
she  put  forth.  It  closed  with  the  solemn  declaration  that, 
subject  to  such  civil  coercion  as  was  now  attempted,  the 
Church  would  not  and  could  not  carry  on  its  government  ; 
and  that  at  the  hazard  of  losing  all  the  secular  benefits  con- 
ferred by  the  State,  and  all  the  public  benefits  of  an  eslah- 
*  See  Appendix,  C. 


29G  MBxMOlRS  OF  DK.  CHALMERS.  U4-2. 

lishment,  it  would  resist  that  coercion,  and  maintain  to  the 
last  the  inalienable  liberties  of  a  Church  of  Christ.  In  mov- 
ing its  adoption,  Dr.  Chalmers  said  :  "  Moderator,  I  am  glad 
that  the  putting  forth  of  a  Claim  of  Pvights  should  be  moved 
for  in  the  General  Assembly.  I  liked  the  proposal  from  the 
time  I  first  heard  of  it,  and  more  than  ever  are  we  now  shut 
up  to  the  necessity  of  such  a  measure.  The  Court  of  Session 
persists  in,  nay,  is  fast  multiplying  her  encroachments.  But 
the  crowning  necessity  for  a  full  and  general  representation 
of  our  case  before  the  country  at  large,  is,  that  we  have  been 
refused  a  hearing  by  Parliament.  The  dispiDsition  in  high 
places,  is  to  leave  the  Church  altogether  in  the  hands  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  to  proceed  against  her  ad  libitum,  or  to  any 
extent  that  may  seem  unto  them  good,  and  this  is  called 
leaving  the  law  to  take  its  course.  They  would  abandon  one 
Court  to  the  entire  mercy  and  discretion  of  another  ;  and 
this  they  term  being  satisfied  with  the  law  as  it  stands.  The 
question  whether  each  Court  might  not  have  its  own  proper 
and  certain  limits  prescribed  by  the  Constitution,  or  whether 
these  limits  might  not  possibly,  yea,  have  not  actually  been 
transgressed — this  is  a  question  which  they  have  not  looked 
at,  and  will  not  listen  to.  Thus  given  up,  thus  abandoned, 
it  seems  our  last  expedient  to  make  the  solemn  appeal  which 
we  now  meditate  to  the  intelligence,  and  the  conscience,  and 
the  good  faith  of  all  men  ;  or,  rather  than  our  last  expedient, 
Moderator,  it  is  our  second  last  :  for,  to  the  very  last  we 
shall  keep  hold  of  those  privileges  which  essentially  belong  to 
every  Christian  Church,  and  not  resign  them  to  the  Erastian- 
ism  which  is  now  making  head  .igainst  us.  To  the  very  last, 
we  shall  assert  a  Government  in  the  Church  distinct  from 
that  of  the  civil  magistrate,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  dis- 
tinct office-bearers,  and  shall  continue  to  administer  that 
government  accordingly.  To  the  very  last  shall  we  with- 
stand the  powers  of  this  world,  should  they  offer  to  intromit 
with,  or  attempt  to  overbear  us  in  those  things  sacred  and 
spiritual,  which  belong  exclusively  to  the  kingdom  that  is 


JET.  62.  THE  CLAIM  OF  RIGHTS.  297 

not  of  this  world  ;  and  at  the  expense  of  every  suffering,  and 
of  every  trial,  are  we  resolved  to  stand  or  fall  with  these  in- 
herent— or,  as  our  rulers  would  find  them,  would  they  but 
examine  their  own  Statute-book — these  constitutional  liber- 
ties of  the  Church  of  Scotland.      *      *      =^ 

"  We  are  not  dealing  in  threats,  but  in  remonstrances. 
AVe  are  not  making  an  experiment  on  English  courage  ;  that 
we  know  would  be  in  vain.  We  are  making  an  appeal  to 
English  justice;  and  that  we  hope  will  not  be  in  vain.  We 
are  letting  the  capital  of  the  empire  know  a  case  of  gross,  and 
grievous,  and  multiplied  oppression,  which  is  now  going  on  in 
one  of  the  provinces — an  oppression  which,  if  not  remedied, 
^v'ill  have  the  effect  of  trampHng  down  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land into  utter  insignificance;  will  despoil  her  of  all  moral 
weight,  or  better  greatly  than  this,  though  itself  a  great  and 
sore  calamity,  will  dissever  her  from  the  State  altogether,  and 
that,  too,  at  a  time  when  her  services  are  most  needed  to  re- 
claim a  sadly  degenerated  community,  and  let  me  add,  were 
never  more  promising,  or,  at  any  former  period  of  our  history, 
more  likely  to  be  effectual  for  the  moral  regeneration  of  our 
land.  It  has  been  asked,  why  not  quit  the  Establishment, 
or  why  continue  to  eat  the  bread  of  the  State  while  unfaith- 
ful to  her  service,  or  refusing  obedience  to  the  authority,  from 
which  alone  ours  as  a  National  Church  derives  all  the  tem- 
poralities which  belong  to  her  ?  There  is  some  little  mis- 
take here,  nay,  a  twofold  mistake  ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  to 
dispute  the  mandate  of  a  Court  that  is  co-ordinate  with  our- 
selves, when  they  have  exceeded  their  own  territory,  and 
made  invasion  upon  ours — that  we  should  not  call  disobedi- 
ence to  the  State.  Nor  are  we  willing  to  receive  our  doom  as 
an  Establishment  at  the  hand  of  any  inferior  judge  or  magis- 
trate, seeing  that  by  the  understanding  of  our  adversaries 
themselves,  it  is  upon  the  supreme  magistrate  that  we  hold 
both  for  the  origin  of  our  National  Church,  and  for  her  con- 
tinuance. But  secondly,  though  we  therefore  wait  the  de- 
cision of  the  State,  ere  we  quit  our  connection  with  it,  that 


298  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  ~i842. 

decision  will  not  be  given  against  us,  but  by  an  act  of  the 
greatest  national  injustice.  Sir,  we  are  not  eating  the  bread 
of  the  State.  When  the  State  took  us  into  connection  with 
itself,  which  it  did  at  the  time  of  the  Union,  it  found  us  eat- 
ing our  own  bread,  and  they  solemnly  pledged  themselves  to 
the  guarantees  or  the  conditions  on  which  we  should  be  per- 
mitted to  eat  their  bread  in  all  time  coming.  Since  at  the 
hands  of  the  Court  of  Session  we  may  be  said  to  be  now 
suffering  one  half  of  a  very  great  iniquity,  we  are  not  going 
to  homologate  this  iniquity  by  doing  the  other  halfof  it  our- 
selves, by  a  voluntary  resignation  of  the  temporalities  which 
we  have  done  nothing  rightfully  to  forfeit,  although  there  be 
enough  of  strength  in  the  civil  power  to  force  them  out  of 
our  hands.  If  the  Government  be  satisfied  with  the  conduct 
of  their  own  servants,  let  them  consummate  the  deed  which 
themselves  approve  of,  and  let  the  act  of  our  deprivation  ap- 
pear in  its  true  character,  not  as  the  spontaneous  doing  of 
so  many  simpletons  among  ourselves,  but  as  a  great  national 
act  of  injustice,  a  flagrant  breach  of  all  national  honor  and 
good  faith." 

Dr.  Chalmers's  motion  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  241 
to  110.  The  Lord  High  Commissioner  was  requested  to 
transmit  the  document  upon  which  this  approving  seal  of  the 
Church  had  been  set,  to  Her  Majesty,  as  the  head  of  the 
State. — Her  principles  thus  faithfully  declared,  her  final 
purpose  thus  solemnly  announced — the  Church  committed 
her  ways  to  God,  and  waited  the  evolutions  of  His  will. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

SUMMER  RESIDENCE  AT  ROSSTREVOR— THE  PREMIER'S 

DETERMINATION    TO    DO    NOTHING THE    SECOND 

AUCHTERARDER  DECISION— THE  CONVOCATION. 

The  months  of  July  and  August,  1842,  were  spent  by 
Dr.  Chalmers  in  the  north  of  Ireland.  He  was  accompanied 
upon  this  occasion  by  his  family,  and  fixed  his  head-quarters 
at  Rosstrevor,  a  lovely  village  lying  a  few  miles  from  Newry. 
The  exquisite  scenery  of  the  Bay  of  Carlingford  was  new  to 
him,  and  he  felt  its  charm  with  a  fresh  and  peculiar  relish. 
He  had  not  been  prepared  to  find  here  so  refined  and 
Christian  a  society,  and  he  responded  ail  the  more  readily 
and  gratefully  to  the  many  kind  attentions  which  were 
lavished  on  him.  His  leisure  hours  were  devoted  to  the 
completion  of  his  Lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  ; 
but  the  "  manifold  calls,  and  invitations,  and  urgencies, 
wherewith  he  was  continually  beset,"  left  him  but  little  time 
for  study.  "  I  make  my  escape  from  this,"  he  writes  to 
Mrs.  Morton,*  '<  in  a  few  days,  leaving  my  family  for  a 
week  or  two.  Whatever  the  lionizers  may  imagine,  there 
is  great  discomfort  often  brought  upon  the  lion,  who  has  no- 
thing for  it  but  just  to  run  off,  in  the  hope  that  both  his 
lioness  and  her  cubs  may  be  permitted  the  enjoyment  of  some 
comparative  repose.  And  yet  the  kindness  of  the  people 
here  is  truly  of  a  most  genuine  and  heartfelt  description. 
"What  inspires  me  with  this  conviction  is  that  there  is  so 
much  of  real  Christianity  among  them.  Lady  Lifford,  a  very 
excellent  and  devoted  person,  comes  here  occasionally  for  sum- 
mer quarters.  She  is  not  here  at  present;  but  she  has  been 
*  In  letter  dated  Rosstrevor,  July  30,  1842. 


300  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

a  leaven  for  good  in  the  neighborhoof],  and  the  sa\^or  of  her 
example  seems  to  have  told  on  the  vicinity.  I  have  riot 
met  with  a  greater  number  of  families  within  the  same 
compass  in  any  mere  country  place,  more  ready  to  entertain, 
and  lliat  with  obviously  congenial  feeling,  the  best  and 
highi'st  of  all  topics."  Writing  again  to  one  of  his  daugh- 
ters, alter  his  return  to  Edinburgh,  he  says: — "All  hearts 
here  warm  at  the  recollection  of  Rosstrevor,  both  place  and 
peoply  ;  and  it  was  only  the  other  day  that  Mrs.  Chalmers 
came  ibrth  spontaneously  with  the  utterance  of  our  having 
had  indeed  a  very  happy  summer,  in  which  sentiment  we- 
all  most  feelingly  concurred.  The  truth  is,  I  must  confess 
that  it  forms  the  sunniest  recollection  of  my  life."*"  There 
was  but  one  shadow  that  rested  on  it — the  pursuing  anxiety 
as  to  the  state  and  prospects  of  the  Church.  Sitting  on  a 
quiet  summer  evening  in  his  lodgings  at  Rosstrevor,  and 
ruminating  on  a  proposal  which  had  been  made  to  him,  that 
the  Church  of  Scotland  should  ask  to  be  heard  at  the  bar  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  that  he  should  undertake  the 
statement  and  defense  of  her  claims,  we  find  him  writing 
thus  : — "  Prepare  me,  O  God,  for  the  whole  of  Thy  blessed 
will.  If  a  period  of  darkness  and  disaster  is  indeed  before 
me,  may  I  know  how  to  acquit  myself  in  the  midst  of  Thy 
coming  visitation.  If  our  Church  is  indeed  to  fall  as  an 
Establishment,  let  her  not  be  forsaken  by  the  ligVit  of  Thy 
countenance  ;  and  may  the  fruit  of  all  her  troubles  be  right- 
eousness and  peace.  Thou  knowest,  O  God,  if  in  the  further 
evolutions  of  the  history  of  our  Church,  we  shall  be  called 
before  councils  and  governors  of  this  world.  And  oh,  my 
God,  if  ever  called  to  examination  and  exposure  before  rulers 
and  spectators,  may  I  not  give  way  to  anxieties,  against 
which  our  Saviour  hath  both  warned  and  encouraged  us, 
when  He  bids  us  not  be  careful  what  we  should  say,  for  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  will  teach  us  how  to  speak  as  we  ought. 
Let  me  cherish  more  confidence  than  I  have  hitherto  done  in 
^  Letter  to  Miss  Chalmers,  dated  Edinburgh,  September  J  2,  184?, 


JET.  62.  DETERMINATION  OF  GOVERNMENT.  301 

the  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  the  ready  and  right  sug- 
gestion of  what  ought  to  be  said  in  the  hour  of  controversy 
or  examination."* 

On  the  11th  June,  when  Mr.  Campbell  of  Monzie  M'as 
prepared  to  move  the  second  reading  of  his  Bill,  an  unfore- 
seen and  insuperable  obstacle  was  thrown  in  his  way.  It 
was  discovered  that  as  many  livings  in  the  Scotch  Church 
were  in  the  gift  of  Her  Majesty,  no  Bill  which  proposed  to 
make  any  alteration  in  the  existing  law  of  Patronage  could 
be  introduced  without  the  express  consent  of  the  Crown. 
Mr.  Maule  urged  the  Premier  to  exercise  the  privilege, 
which  it  was  understood  that  he  possessed,  of  setting  this 
obstruction  aside,  but  he  refused,  and  the  Bill  had  accord- 
ingly to  be  withdrawn.  A  few  tlays  afterward,  Sir  Robert 
Peel  informed  the  House  "  that  after  a  full  consideration  of 
the  subject.  Her  Majesty's  Government  had  abandoned  all 
hope  of  settling  the  question  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  or  of 
effecting  any  good  by  introducing  a  measure  relative  to  it." 
The  General  Assembly  had  stood  firm — the  evangelical 
majorities  were  as  large  as  ever — the  hope  held  out  by  Dr. 
Leishman  and  "  the  forty"  had  failed — and  as  they  could 
not  count  upon  the  Church's  acquiesence,  the  measure  which 
a  few  months  before  had  been  announced  as  likely  to  be  so 
satisfactory,  was  finally  abandoned.  Without  interference 
on  the  part  of  Government,  the  conflict  with  the  Civil  Courts 
must  take  its  own  course — a  course  which  ere  long  resulted 
in  a  most  disastrous  issue.  Lord  Kinnoul  and  Mr.  Young 
had  raised  a  second  action  against  the  Presbytery  of  Auch- 
terarder,  to  recover  damages,  laid  at  £16,000,  by  way  of 
compensation  for  the  injury  sustained  by  patron  and  presentee 
in  consequence  of  Mr.  Young's  rejection.  The  Court  of 
Session  found  this  action  relevant,  and  on  the  9th  August, 
1842,  the  House  of  Lords,  sitting  as  a  Court  of  Appeal, 
confirmed  this  judgment,  and  declared  that  damages  were 
recoverable  by  the  pursuers.  The  former  decision  of  the 
*  See  Hora  Sabbatica,  vol.  i.  pp.  70,  73,  74. 


302  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

Supreme  Civil  Court  in  the  Auchterarder  case  had  gone  no 
further  than  to  declare  that  in  setting  the  presentee  aside  on 
the  ground  of  the  popular  dissent,  the  Presbytery  had  acted 
illegally.  Believing  that  the  only  legitimate  effect  of  this 
decision  vi'ould  be  to  bring  into  operation  the  remedy  specially 
provided  by  Statute  for  such  a  case,  namely  the  withholding 
the  fruits  of  the  benefice,  the  Church  had  relinquished  all 
claim  to  them.  By  this  second  decision,  however,  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  it  was  distinctly  declared  that  the  obligation 
to  "  receive  and  admit,"  which  still  lay  upon  the  Presbytery, 
was  a  civil  oh\\ga.tion,  the  violation  of  which  was  to  be  re- 
garded and  punished  as  a  civil  ofiense,  as  a  crime  committed 
against  the  common  law  of  the  country.  The  four  Enghsh 
Judges,  Lord  Lyndhurst,  Lord  Cottenham,  Lord  Brougham, 
and  Lord  Campbell,  were  quite  unanimous.  It  is  true  that 
in  the  opinions  which  they  delivered,  not  one  of  them  ever 
alluded  to  one  of  the  Statutes  referred  to  by  the  Church  of 
Scotland  as  ratifying  her  exclusive  spiritual  jurisdiction,  and 
shielding  it  from  invasion.  They  regarded  the  case  as  ex- 
hibiting no  peculiarity,  presenting  no  difficulty,  and  finding 
its  perfect  parallel  in  that  of  any  common  civil  corporation 
violating  one  of  the  statutes  upon  which  it  was  founded.  In 
such  an  instance,  if  any  individual  could  plead  that  by  the 
act  of  the  corporation,  his  patrimonial  interests  had  been 
injured,  an  action  for  damages  was  a  fair  and  legal  mode  of 
obtaining  redress.  It  was  the  same,  in  the  judgment  of  these 
noble  Lords,  with  the  Church  of  Scotland.  By  putting  the 
Church  in  such  a  category,  and  by  subjecting  her  to  such 
legal  treatment,  her  title  to  any  peculiar  exclusive  spiritual 
authority  and  jurisdiction  was  ignored,  was  absolutely  and 
entirely  repudiated.  It  had  been  clear  enough  from  the 
whole  current  of  their  recent  judgments,  that  the  Court  of 
Session  conceived  itself  to  be  entitled  to  review,  and  If  it  saw 
reason,  to  reverse  any  proceedings  of  the  ecclesiastical  Courts, 
by  which  a  civil  injury  of  any  kind  had  been  inflicted. 
Now,  however,  and  for  the  first  time,  the  determination  of 


^T.  62.     THE  SECOND  AUCHTERARDER  DECISION.  303 


the  Supreme  Civil  Court  was  given  forth,  that  the  judgments 
of  the  Court  of  Session  imposed  on  the  Church  an  obligation 
to  obedience,  which  she  could  not  disregard  without  subject- 
ing herself  to  civil  pains  and  penalties.  This  amounted  not 
simply  to  a  change,  but  to  the  entire  overthrow  and  reversal 
of  the  constitution  of  the  Scottish  Estabhshment,  so  far  as 
that  constitution  had  guaranteed  to  the  Church  a  sphere  of 
action  within  which  no  secular  power  could  control  or  coerce. 
The  first  Auchterarder  decision  put  a  new  interpretation  on 
the  Law  of  Patronage,  from  the  injurious  results  of  which 
the  Church  might  have  been  protected  by  a  change  effected 
by  the  Legislature  in  that  single  law.  This  second  decision 
gave  a  new  interpretation  of  the  nature  and  conditions  of 
that  relationship  in  which  the  Church  stood  to  the  Civil 
Courts,  and  through  them  to  the  State  itself,  whose  organs 
these  Courts  were.  These  conditions  were  such  that  the 
Church  could  not  fulfill  them  consistently  with  her  principles. 
A  mere  Non-Intrusion  measure  would  no  longer  meet  the 
difficulties  of  her  position.  Yet  in  that  position,  without 
some  relief  it  seemed  impossible  for  her  any  longer  to  remain. 
The  tidings  of  that  decision  which  brought  the  conflict  to  its 
crisis  reached  Dr.  Chalmers  while  still  in  Ireland,  and 
writing  to  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Mackenzie,  a  few  days  after 
he  had  heard  of  it,  he  says  : 

"Belfast,  August  22d,  1842. 

"  My  dear  Sir — I  have  been  thinking  much  in  a  gen- 
eral way  of  what  the  Church  of  Scotland  should  now  do.  I 
have  no  idea  of  an  inUant  resignation,  and  should  exceed- 
ingly regret  if,  under  any  feeling  of  this  sort,  we  should  be 
exposed  to  a  piecemeal  falling  away  of  our  friends  from  the 
Church,  one  by  one.  We  must  not  go  out  in  driblets,  but  in 
a  compact  and  entire  body  ;  and  one  step  clearly,  in  my  view 
of  it,  remains  to  be  done  ere  this  great  conjunct  movement 
should  take  place. 

"  To  go  out  now,  would  be  receiving  our  doom  as  an  Es- 


304  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

tablishment  from  the  Civil  Court,  or  at  the  bidding  of  a 
mere  fellow  and  co-ordinate  with  ourselves — for  the  House 
of  Lords,  in  its  judicial  capacity,  is  nothing  more.  When 
we  do  go  out,  it  must  be  at  the  bidding  of  that  party  in  vir- 
tue of  whose  ordination  it  was  that  we  became  an  Establish- 
ment, or  from  whose  hands  we  receive  our  endowments  ;  or 
rather,  under  whose  protection  it  is  that  our  right  as  a  Church 
to  these  endowments  is  secured  from  all  violation.  In  other 
w^ords,  we  should  not  quit  the  Establishment  till  we  have 
obtained  from  Parliament  a  deliverance,  whether  by  an  ad- 
verse proposition,  or  a  refusal  to  entertain  our  cause. 

"  It  is  thus  that  I  apprehend  the  final  step  should  not 
be  taken  till  next  Session  of  Parliament  ;  but  meanwhile, 
a  manifesto,  setting  forth  both  our  principles  and  our  determ- 
ination, should  be  put  forth  as  soon  as  may  be,  and  sub- 
scribed by  all  our  friends  in  the  Church,  both  as  an  exoner- 
ation of  their  consciences,  and  as  an  intimation  to  all  con- 
cerned of  what  that  really  is  which  we  mean  to  stand  or 
fall  by. 

"  There  are  subordinate  matters  of  detail,  respecting  which 
I  would  need  to  be  in  Scotland  ere  I  could  make  up  my 
mind.  The  size  of  my  new  house  will  be  of  one  service. 
We  shall  all  nestle  there  together  till  some  openings  cast  up 
for  us  under  the  new  system.  Let  not  Eliza  be  dismayed  ; 
but  let  us  cast  our  confidence  and  care  on  that  God  who  car- 
eth  for  us. — I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"The  Rev.  John  Mackenzie." 

While  repudiating  the  idea  of  immediate  and  individual 
resignation.  Dr.  Chalmers  contemplated  the  speedy  with- 
drawal of  the  evangelical  clergymen  from  the  Establishment 
as  inevitable,  and  waited  only  his  return  to  Edinburgh  to 
unite  with  others  in  taking  instant  measures  to  meet  this 
emergency.  As  unity  of  counsel  and  action  were  so  desira- 
ble, some  special  opportunity  required  to  be  created  for  bring- 


JET.  62.  LETTER  TO    MR.  MACKENZIE.  305 

ing  together  all  who  held  the  principles  for  which  the  Church 
had  been  contending,  in  such  circumstances  that  after  a  free 
and  full,  unrestrained  and  confidential  consultation,  they  might 
resolve  upon  the  steps  which  it  became  them  immediately  to 
take.  Dr.  Chalmers  returned  to  Edinburgh  in  the  begin- 
ning of  September,  and  on  the  19th  of  that  month,  he  wrote 
again  to  Mr  Mackenzie — 

"  Edinburgh,  September  I9th,  1842. 

"  My  dear  Sir — I  think  the  present  state  of  things  emi- 
nently fitted  to  spiritualize  our  clergymen,  by  causing  them  to 
sit  loose  to  all  earthly  dependence.  I  think  I  can  perceive 
this  effect  on  some  of  the  brethren  ;  and  am  informed  that 
it  tells  sensibly  on  the  pulpit  ministrations  of  many.  May 
He  who  can  bring  good  out  of  evil,  in  His  own  good,  however 
mysterious  way,  convert  our  present  troubles  into  the  means 
of  a  signal  revival  of  Christianity  in  the  towns  and  parishes 
of  Scotland. 

"  Mr.  Hanna  suggested  to  me  a  general  convocation  of  all 
the  right-minded  clergy  on  the  subject  ;  a  suggestion  which 
I  am  pushing  among  the  brethren  here,  and  with  greater 
acceptance  than  I  at  first  anticipated.  I  wish  it  to  come  in 
the  shape  at  first  of  a  requisition  from  some  twelve  or  twenty 
of  the  most  venerable  of  the  senior  clergy  in  all  parts  of  Scot- 
land, so  as  to  divest  it  altogether  of  the  aspect  of  Edinburgh 
leadership,  and  give  it  the  appearance,  as  well  as  the  reality, 
of  a  great,  and  general,  and  withal  spontaneous  remonstrance, 
from  the  collective  mind  and  conscience  of  the  Church,  against 
the  Erastian  invasion  made  by  the  recent  decision  of  the 
House  of  Peers  on  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland. 

"  Tell  Eliza  to  keep  her  mind  staid  upon  God.  If  there 
is  a  break-up,  in  time  I  mean  to  call  my  house  '  The  Re- 
fuge.'— I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  Rev.  John  Mackenzie." 


306  Mi:MOfLlS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  131-2. 

Agreeably  to  the  intention  expressed  in  this  letter,  Dr- 
Chalmers  addressed  a  private  letter  to  a  number  of  the  mo^i. 
aged  and  influential  ministers  of  the  Church,  inviting  them 
to  append  their  names  to  the  general  circular  by  which  the 
Convocation  was  to  be  convened.  "  It  is  thought  by  many," 
said  he,  in  this  private  communication,  "  that  the  critical 
and  extraordinary  position  in  which  the  Church  is  placed  by 
the  late  decision  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  case  of  Auch- 
terarder,  should  be  met  by  extraordinary  means  ;  and  of  these 
the  best  and  the  likeliest  were  a  General  Convocation  in 
Edinburgh,  before  the  next  meeting  of  Parliament,  of  all  the 
ministers  in  the  Church  who  are  friendly  to  the  great  prin- 
ciples for  which  she  is  contending. 

"  It  is  true  that  in  the  General  Assembly,  and  other  eccle- 
siastical courts,  we  may  be  said  to  have  regular  and  con- 
stituted channels  for  the  expression  and  conveyance  of  our 
views.  But  our  increasing  majorities,  and  the  slight  influ- 
ence of  these  on  a  Government  who  have  been  hitherto  ad- 
verse to  our  claims,  or  stood  aloof  from  the  consideration  of 
them,  give  abundant  evidence  that  these  ordinary  methods 
have  been  tried  and  found  inefiectual.  The  truth  is,  that 
every  effort  has  been  made  to  foster  the  delusion  in  the  minds 
of  our  rulers,  that  the  late  proceedings  of  the  Assembly  are 
due  to  the  factitious  influence  of  a  few  leaders,  which,  when 
once  broken  up,  will  leave  the  Church  in  a  condition  to  be 
moulded  into  a  willing  conformity  with  the  reigning  and 
Erastian  policy  of  the  times.  There  is  nothing  more  fitted 
to  dissipate  this  imagination  than  a  spontaneous  and  free  ex- 
pression, the  result  of  a  conference,  held  for  days  together, 
by  clergymen  as.sembled  in  a  great  and  general  body  from 
all  parts  of  Scotland  ;  and  giving  forth  such  a  solemn  and 
deliberate  representation  of  their  sentiments  and  views,  as 
might  convince  all  men  that  the  determination  to  stand  or 
fall  with  the  spiritual  independence  of  our  Church  is  both  so 
strong  and  so  general  as  not  to  be  overcome  but  by  a  violent 
oppression  of  conscience,  which,  if  attempted  on  the  part  of 


JET.  62.  THE  CONVOCATION.  307 

the  civil  authorities,  will  lead  to  the  degradation  and  event- 
ual overthrow  of  the  best  and  greatest  of  our  national  in- 
stitutes." 

The  response  to  this  communication  was  that  of  a  cordial 
and  almost  unanimous  consent ;  and  by  a  general  circular 
signed  by  thirty-two  of  the  most  venerable  clergymen,  the 
whole  body  of  the  evangelical  ministers  all  over  Scotland 
were  invited  to  meet  in  Convocation  at  Edinburgh  on  the 
1 7th  November.  In  prospect  of  a  meeting  with  whose  pro- 
ceedings such  momentous  issues  were  bound  up,  a  proposal 
for  united  prayer  was  drawn  up  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  M'Cheyne 
of  Dundee,  and  disseminated  widely  over  the  country.  The 
petitions  which  Dr.  Chalmers  individually  addressed  to  the 
Throne  of  Grace  tell  us  with  what  profound  anxiety  he 
looked  forward  to  this  great  occasion. — "  Do  Thou  guide, 
O  Lord,  the  deliberations  and  measures  of  that  Convocation 
of  ministers  now  on  the  eve  of  assembling  ;  and  save  me,  in 
particular,  from  all  that  is  rash  and  unwarrantable,  when 
engaged  with  the  counsels  and  propositions  that  come  before 
it.  Let  me  not,  O  God,  be  an  instrument  in  any  way  of 
disappointing  or  misleading  my  brethren.  Let  me  not,  in 
this  crisis  of  our  Church's  history,  urge  a  sacrifice  upon  others 
which  I  would  not  most  cheerfully  share  with  them.  I  pray 
for  a  right  and  discerning  spirit  in  this  matter,  O  God.  Let 
me  struggle  against  my  own  diffidence  of  my  own  extempo- 
raneous powers.  Appear,  O  God,  in  the  midst  of  us  for  the 
protection  of  Thy  Church,  and  the  vindication  of  Thine  own 
glory."  * 

The  Convocation  was  opened  in  St.  George's  Church  on 
the  forenoon  of  Thursday,  the  1 7th  November,  by  devotional 
services  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Macdonald  of  Ferintosh, 
and  a  discourse  by  Dr.  Chalmers.  The  text  for  this  sermon 
was  most  felicitously  chosen  :  "  Unto  the  upright  there  ariseth 
light  in  the  darkness."      "  The  great  lesson  of  this  text,"  said 

#  Horm  SabbaticcB,  vol.  i.  pp.  92,  93  ;  vol.  ii.  pp.  87,  89. 


308  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

Dr.  Chalmers,  in  opening  his  discourse,  "  is  the  connec- 
tion which  obtains  between  integrity  of  purpose  and  clear- 
ness of  discernment,  insomuch  that  a  duteous  conformity  to 
what  is  right,  is  generally  followed  up  by  a  ready  and  lumin- 
ous discernment  of  what  is  true.  It  tells  us  that  if  we  have 
but  grace  to  do  as  we  ought,  we  shall  be  made  to  see  as  we 
ought ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  if  right  morally,  we  are  in 
the  highway  of  becoming  right  intellectually."  After  an 
illustration  of  this  general  truth,  he  closed  by  this  special  and 
appropriate  application  of  it  to  the  circumstances  under  which 
his  brethren  were  then  assembled  : 

"  And  now,  my  venerable  fathers  and  brethren  of  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland,  I  will  not  speak  of  it  as  a 
certainty  that  if  you  persevere  in  the  high  w^alk  of  upright- 
ness on  which  you  have  entered,  the  secularities  of  that  Es- 
tablishment will  be  w^rested  from  your  hands.  It  would  not 
be  venturing  far,  however,  to  speak  of  it  as  a  probability  and 
a  hazard,  and  surely  at  the  very  least,  not  to  speak  of  it  as 
a  possibility  were  downright  affectation.  In  this,  its  lowest 
and  least  appalling  form,  you  have  been  in  the  habit  of  re- 
garding it  for  years,  and  even  when  a  crisis  was  obviously 
drawing  nearer,  and  the  symptoms  of  some  great  and  ap- 
proaching overthrow  looked  more  menacing  than  before,  let 
the  majorities  of  our  Church  attest  w^hether  they  have  been 
the  calculations  of  w^orldly  prudence  or  the  high  behests  of 
principle  which  had  the  ascendant  over  you.  And  still  I 
rejoice  to  believe  that  whatever  be  the  shades  or  diversities 
of  sentiments  upon  lesser  questions,  the  tie  of  that  great  and 
common  principle  which  hitherto  has  bound  us  together  re- 
mains unbroken — that  I  speak  in  the  hearing  of  men  firmly 
resolved  as  ever  to  lose  all  and  to  suffer  all  rather  than  surren- 
der the  birthright  of  those  prerogatives  which  we  inherit  from 
our  fathers,  or  compromise  the  sacred  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
has  made  us  free — of  men  W'hose  paramount  question  is,  what 
is  duty  ?  that  best  stepping-stone  to  the  solution  of  the  other 
question,  what  is  wisdom  ?      For  it  is  when  in  this  spirit  of 


^T.  62.  THE  CONVOCATION.  309 

uprightness,  this  blessed  frame  of  simplicity  and  godly  sin- 
cerity, that  light  is  made  to  arise,  and  wisdom  is  justified  of 
her  children, 

"  This  is  not  the  place  for  attempting  any  specific  delinea- 
tion of  the  path  which  wisdom  prescribes  in  our  present  event- 
ful circumstances;  nor  will  1  utter  one  word  that  might  in- 
tlicate  my  opinion  or  even  my  leanings  on  the  question  of 
what,  specifically  and  practically,  the  Church  at  present  ought 
to  do.  But  surely  this  is  the  place  for  urging  both  on  my- 
self and  others  the  moral  preparation  which  all  experience 
demonstrates  to  have  an  enlightening  efiect  upon  the  under- 
standing, and  all  Scripture  affirms  to  be  of  sovereign  efficacy 
m  bringing  down  the  spirit  of  wisdom  from  above.  This 
has  been  the  object  of  your  prayers,  and  it  is  the  identical 
object,  however  feeble  in  execution,  of  our  preaching.  The 
great  lesson  of  our  text  is,  that  if  we  purpose  aright  we  shall 
^be  made  to  see  aright,  and  that  the  integrity  of  our  will 
shall  be  followed  up  by  light  in  the  understanding.  God 
will  not  abandon  to  darkness  those  who  cast  their  care  and 
their  confidence  upon  Himself,  and  who  can  say  with  the 
Apostle,  He  is  my  helper,  and  I  will  not  fear  what  man  can 
do  unto  me.  The  man  who  can  lift  this  honest  and  unfal- 
tering prayer — '  Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart ; 
try  me  and  know  my  thoughts,  and  see  if  there  be  any  wicked 
way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the  way  everlasting  ;'  the  man 
who  can  say  this  fearlessly  has  nothing  else  to  fear.  God 
will  establish  the  just ;  for  it  is  said,  the  righteous  God 
trieth  the  hearts  and  reins.  Commit,  then,  thy  works  to 
the  Lord,  and  thy  thoughts  shall  be  established.  In  all  thy 
ways  acknowledge  Him,  and  He  shall  direct  thy  paths.  It 
is  He  who,  by  the  light  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  makes  good  the 
connection  between  singleness  of  purpose  and  wisdom  of  con- 
duct, and  thus  I  understand  the  text,  that  He  maketh  wise 
the  simple  and  giveth  understanding  to  the  simple.  Ye  men 
of  God,  who  make  the  Bible  the  directory  of  your  hearts  and 
consciences,  you  will  not  long  be  left  in   uncertainty.      He 


310  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 

will  make  your  way  clear  and  open  before  you.  He  shall 
bring  forth  thy  righteousness  as  the  light,  and  thy  judgment 
as  the  noon-day." 

The  Convocation  assembled  for  business  at  seven  o'clock  in 
the  evening  in  a  small  chapel*  in  an  obscure  part  of  the  old 
town.  About  450  ministers  were  present — a  larger  number 
than  had  ever  met  in  council  in  Scotland,  many  of  them  from 
the  remotest  parts  of  the  country.  Dr.  Chalmers  was  invited 
to  take  the  chair.  In  doing  so,  he  briefly  stated  that  the 
Convocation  was  met  not  for  debate,  but  for  deliberation. 
Its  great  object  was  to  ascertain  the  mind  and  purpose  of  the 
Church  in  the  present  perilous  emergency,  and  he  noticed  this 
at  the  outset  to  encourage  all  to  come  forward  with  their 
sentiments.  To  secure  this  object,  the  public  were  carefully 
excluded  from  this  and  all  the  other  after  conferences.  The 
proposal  that  two  eminent  lawyers,  elders  of  the  Church, 
whose  advice,  it  was  imagined,  might  occasionally  be  serv- 
iceable, should  be  admitted,  was  met  with  an  immediate 
and  general  negative.  It  was  arranged  that  the  ordinary 
formalities  of  debate  should  be  dispensed  with — that  the 
discussion  of  each  topic  should  be  conducted,  as  much  as 
possible,  in  a  colloquial  form — that  after  the  more  aged  and 
eminent  ministers  had  stated  their  opinions,  the  members 
should  be  invited.  Synod  by  Synod,  to  express  their  views  ; 
and  that  no  conclusion  should  be  come  to,  no  practical  meas- 
ure resolved  upon,  till  as  full  an  expression  and  interchange 
of  opinion  as  possible  had  been  elicited.  It  was  arranged, 
also,  that  three  times,  at  least,  each  day,  the  Convocation 
should  engage  in  devotional  exercises,  accompanied  by  read- 
ing of  the  Scriptures  and  praise,  and  that  through  all  the  or- 
dmary  business  prayer  should  be  interspersed.  After  some 
preliminary  consultation,  the  attention  of  the  Convocation  was 
concentrated  upon  the  two  following  topics  :  1st.  The  exact 
bearing  and  eflect  of  the  late  decisions  of  the  Civil  Courts, 
and  especially  of  the  recent  Auchterarder  judgment,  involv- 
*  Roxburgh  Church. 


^T.  62.  THE  COiNVOOATION.  311 

ing  a  consideration  of  what  would  be  required  in  order  to  effect 
any  right  adjustment  of  the  questions  now  at  issue  between 
the  Church  and  ihe  civil  authorities ;  2d.  The  duty  and 
prospects  of  the  Church  in  the  event  of  no  adequate  remedy 
being  provided.  The  Convocation  was  occupied  with  the 
first  of  these  topics  on  Friday  and  Saturday.  Considerable 
diversity  of  opinion  was  at  first  expressed,  and  strong  appre- 
hensions were  entertained,  that  no  common  ground  for  united 
action  could  be  discovered.  Some  members  of  the  Convocation, 
acting  under  the  impression  that  none  but  the  best  remedy 
for  the  e.xisting  evil  should  be  presented  or  entertained,  were 
for  putting  the  abolition  of  patronage  on  the  foreground  of 
any  application  which  should  be  made  to  the  Government  or 
the  Legislature.  Gradually,  however,  it  became  apparent 
that  to  press  this  would  be  to  frustrate  the  very  object  of 
the  Convocation.  "  I  have  long  felt,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers, 
when  speaking  on  the  forenoon  of  Saturday,  "  that  our  proper 
business  is  to  express  not  what  we  hold  to  be  most  desirable, 
but  what  we  hold  to  be  indispensable.  We  are  not  to  go  to 
Parliament  in  the  attitude  of  petitioners  ;  for  then  we  might 
break  up  into  innumerable  shades  of  diversity  of  opinion. 
Let  us  rather  ascertain  and  enunciate  the  one  principle  upon 
which  we  can  all  unite — let  us  fix  the  point  beneath  which 
it  is  impossible  for  the  Church  to  act  ;  and  let  us  put  it  so 
that  we  shall  be  able  to  say  to  our  rulers — '  Your  destruction 
of  the  Establishment  shall  arise  not  from  our  asking  any  thing 
which  we  have  not  by  right  already,  but  from  your  refusal 
to  continue  to  us  that  which  by  right  we  already  have.'  Do 
those  who  would  have  us  petition  against  Patronage  hold 
what  they  seek  to  be  so  essential  that  the  refusal  of  it 
would  oblige  them  to  go  out  of  the  Church  ?  If  they  do, 
then  I  say,  that  what  I  seek  is  such,  that  in  the  event  of 
its  refusal,  I  should  hold  it  a  disgrace  to  remain  in.  Will 
they,  then,  enfeeble  the  efibrt  of  our  representation  by  declin- 
ing to  co-operate  with  us  ?  or  would  these  men  actually  re- 
main in  the  Establishment  if  our  proposition  be  not  granted? 


312  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 


Perhaps  ihey  might ;  for  there  is  a  great  difference  between 
extremeness  of  principle  and  strength  of  principle.  But  which 
is  best? — that  we  fix  a  point  and  surrender  all  for  it,  though 
it  be  not  the  highest  we  could  wish  ;  or  that  we  plant  our 
demand  at  the  highest  point,  but  do  not  make  all  depend  on 
its  being  refused.  The  Church  is  a  vessel  upon  the  billows, 
on  the  very  point  of  being  submerged  :  is  it  time  to  speak  of 
what  will  most  improve  the  trim  of  the  vessel,  and  not  rather 
of  what  will  keep  us  afloat  and  bring  us  to  a  safe  haven  ? 
We  would  adjourn  the  consideration  of  the  first  question  alto- 
gether till  we  are  safely  in  the  harbor." 

In  the  course  of  the  discussion,  a  series  of  resolutions  was 
drawn  up  by  Dr.  Candlish,  in  which,  after  reciting  and  char- 
acterizing some  of  the  late  decisions,  it  was  declared — "That 
as  the  principle  involved  in  these  decisions,  and  particularly 
in  the  recent  Auchterarder  judgment,  is  that  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  Civil  Courts  over  those  of  the  Established  Church  in 
the  exercise  of  their  spiritual  functions,  so  the  members  of 
the  Convocation  declare  that  no  measure  can  in  conscience 
be  submitted  to  which  does  not  effectually  protect  the  Church 
against  the  exercise  of  such  jurisdiction  of  the  Civil  Courts 
in  time  to  come,  and,  in  particular,  fully  prevent  all  future 
encroachments  of  the  nature  specified  in  the  preceding  reso- 
lutions." There  was  a  right  restriction  here  of  the  decision 
to  the  one  indispensable  element,  without  which  no  measure 
of  relief  could  be  accepted.  Dr.  Patrick  Macfarlan,  Dr.  Cun- 
ningham, Dr.  Candlish,  and  Dr.  Chalmers  all  concurred  in 
recommending  that  this  restriction  should  be  carefully  observ- 
ed;  and  such  was  the  happy  effect  of  two  days'  full  and  un- 
fettered interchange  of  thought,  that  when  at  last  the  roll 
of  members  was  called  over  in  order  to  ascertain  how  many 
acquiesced  in  Dr.  Candlish's  resolutions,  it  was  found  that 
there  were  only  seven  who  refused  to  concur.*  "This  morn- 
ing," says  Mr.  Bonar,  writing  on  the  afternoon  of  Saturday, 

*  This  series  of  resolutions,  passed  on  Saturday  the  19th  November, 
was  concurred  in  by  427  ministers. 


jET,  62,  THE  CONVOCATION,  313 

*'  Dr.  Chalmers's  coming  in  and  delivering  his  address,  which 
he  did  with  great  fervor  and  kindliness,  tended  more,  perhaps, 
than  any  thing,  to  determine  the  result.  His  speech  seemed 
to  produce  such  an  effect  that  from  that  moment  the  other 
motions  which  had  been  brought  forward  were  obviously  sunk 
or  sinking  out  of  sight,  so  that  their  movers  at  last  withdrew 
them.  The  harmony  was  indeed  wonderful,  after  all  that 
we  had  feared.  '  The  Kind's  heart  is  in  the  hand  of  the 
Lord.'  "  ^" 

A  good  and  sure  groundwork  having  been  laid,  the  Con- 
vocation proceeded  to  consider  what  would  be  their  duty  in 
the  event  of  no  adequate  measure  of  relief  being  granted. 
One  obvious  alternative  was,  that  the  evangelical  clergymen 
should  withdraw  from  a  Church  w^hose  government  they 
could  not  conscientiously  conduct  without  violating  the  State- 
imposed  conditions  on  which  they  held  their  livings.  For 
more  than  a  year  Dr.  Chalmers  had  been  contemplating  this 
alternative  as  the  one  which  they  should  ultimately  be  driv- 
en to  adopt,  and  had  been  maturing  a  plan  for  providing  such 
a  support  for  all  the  outgoing  ministers,  that,  carrying  their 
principles,  their  Confession  of  Faith,  and  their  ecclesiastical 
organization  entire  and  unviolated  along  with  them,  with  no 
loss  but  the  loss  of  their  temporalities,  and  with  whatever 
gain  of  influence  their  tried  fidelity  might  win  for  them,  they 
might  abide  in  honor  and  usefulness,  seen  and  recognized  as 
the  true  Church  of  their  fathers.  He  asked  and  received 
permission  from  the  Convocation  to  lay  this  plan,  with  all 
its  details,  before  the  Convocation  at  its  meeting  on  the  even- 
ing of  Monday  the  21st.  The  lengthened  and  most  import- 
ant address  which  he  delivered  on  this  occasion  is  now  printed 
for  the  first  time,  and  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  this 
volume.!  It  contains  no  bare  unfinished  outline,  as  from 
the  time  and  circumstances  in  which  it  was  presented  any 

*  Notes  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Convocation,  taken  at  the  time  in 
short-hand,  each  day,  by  the  Rev.  Andrew  A.  Bonar  of  Collace. 
t  See  Appendix,  D. 
VOL,  IV, — O 


314  iMEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842 

one  might  have  been  prepared  to  anticipate,  but  a  complete 
and  detailed  account  of  that  system  of  financial  operation, 
which  was  adopted  afterward  without  a  single  alteration  in 
any  of  its  provisions,  and  carried  out  with  such  pre-eminent 
success  by  the  Free  Church.  We  search  in  vain  for  a  par- 
allel to  this  in  the  history  of  any  other  Christian  or  corpo- 
rate society;  for  v.'here  can  another  instance  be  produced  in 
which,  so  long  before  the  crisis  occurred  for  which  it  was  in- 
cumbent to  provide,  a  scheme  of  operations  so  comprehensive 
and  complicated  was  laid  down,  not  one  of  whose  arrange- 
ments it  was  afterward  found  necessary  to  set  aside?  It 
presents  us  with  a  very  signal  illustration  of  the  foresight, 
the  fertility  of  device,  and  the  practical  sagacity  by  which 
Dr.  Chalmers's  intellect  was  distinguished.  But  however 
judicious  that  scheme  now  looks,  when  viewed  in  the  hght 
of  its  accomplishment,  it  remains  to  be  told  that  not  ten  out 
of  the  four  hundred  ministers  to  whom  it  originally  was 
broached  had  much,  if  any,  faith  in  its  success,  nor  was  there 
one,  perhaps,  whose  decision  upon  the  great  question  of  duty 
then  before  them  it  served  in  any  appreciable  degree  to  sway. 
It  was  listened  to  with  general  incredulity,  and  the  prospects 
held  out  by  it  were  regarded  as  the  visionary  anticipations  of 
a  too  sanguine  imagination.  Putting  such  a  future  as  it 
depicted  out  of  its  thoughts,  the  Convocation  returned  to  a 
discussion  which  hinged  mainly  upon  the  point  whether, 
standing  upon  her  constitutional  rights,  the  Church  should 
continue  the  conflict,  though  the  supreme  power  in  the  State 
should  refuse  to  interfere  ;  or  whether,  if  redress  were  refused, 
she  should  not  retire  from  a  conflict  which  she  could  not 
prosecute  without  loss  of  character  and  injury  to  the  general 
interests  of  religion.  Here,  as  before  the  differences  of  opin- 
ion, brought  fully  out  in  the  freedom  of  confidential  inter- 
course, revealed  the  substantial  agreement  which  prevailed. 
A  second  series  of  resolutions  had  been  proposed  by  Dr.  Mac- 
farlan,  concluding  with  the  solemn  declaration  that  as  it 
was  the  duty,  so,  "  in  dependence  on  the  grace  of  God,  it  v/as 


iET.  62.  THE  CONVOCATION.  315 

the  determination  of  the  brethren  now  assembled,  if  no  meas- 
ure such  as  they  have  declared  to  be  indispensable  be  grant- 
ed, to  tender  the  resignation  of  their  civil  advantages,  which 
they  can  no  longer  hold  in  consistency  with  the  free  and  full 
exercise  of  their  spiritual  functions,  and  to  cast  themselves 
on  such  provision  as  God  in  His  providence  may  afford  ;  main- 
taining still  uncompromised  the  principle  of  a  right  scriptural 
connection  between  the  Church  and  the  State,  and  solemnly 
entering  their  protest  against  the  judgments  of  which  they 
complain,  as  in  their  decided  opinion  altogether  contrary  to 
what  has  ever  hitherto  been  understood  to  be  the  law  and 
constitution  of  this  country."  On  Tuesday  night,  after  pray- 
er by  Dr.  M'Donald,  the  roll  was  called,  and  270  voted 
that  these  resolutions  should  be  adopted.^  It  was  felt  by 
all  to  be  a  vote  not  lightly  to  be  given,  and  for  a  day  or  two 
many  held  back  their  names. 

On  Wednesday  forenoon  Dr.  Chalmers  asked  how  many 
names  were  now  appended  to  the  resolutions  of  the  preced- 
ing evening.  When  told  that  already  there  were  above  300, 
he  broke  forth  with  the  exclamation — "  Then  we  are  more 
than  Gideon's  army — a  most  hopeful  omen."  As  he  pro- 
ceeded to  picture  forth  all  the  oppositions  which  this  little 
army  might  encounter — all  the  victories  it  might  win.  the 
inward  fire  kindled  into  a  perfect  ecstasy  of  excitement.  He 
stepped  forth  into  the  centre  of  the  group,  his  whole  frame 
quivering  with  emotion,  and  looking  round  upon  that  band 
of  faithful  men,  upon  whose  constancy  in  the  hour  of  trial 
he  felt  now  that  he  could  count,  he  exclaimed — "  For  throw- 
ing up  our  livings — for  casting  ourselves  with  such  unequal 
odds  into  so  great  a  conflict,  men  may  call  us  enthusiasts  ; 
but  enthusiasm  is  a  noble  virtue,  rarely  to  be  found  in  calm 
and  unruffled  times  of  prosperity  :  it  flourishes  in  adversity 
— it  kindles  in  the  hour  of  danger.  Persecution  but  serves 
to  quicken  the  energy  of  its  purposes.      It  swells  in  proud  in- 

*  This  second  series  of  Resolutions  was  finally  concurred  in  by  333 
ministers. 


316  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1842. 


tegrity,  and,  great  in  the  purity  of  its  cause,  it  can  scatter 
defiance  amid  a  host  of  enemies."  It  was  the  spirit  of  chival- 
ry baptized  with  the  fire  from  Heaven. 

The  two  sets  of  resolutions  which  had  been  adopted  having 
been  embodied  in  a  Memorial  addressed  to  Sir  Robert  Peel 
and  the  other  members  of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  the 
Convocation  broke  up  on  Thursday  the  24th  November. 
Its  sittings  lasted  for  six  days — days  never  to  pass  from  the 
memory  of  those  privileged  to  be  present  ;  for  when  shall 
they  be  able  to  forget  the  solemn,  subdued,  and  anxious  feel- 
ing which  at  first  prevailed — the  fears  which  once  and  again 
arose  that  discord  and  disunion  might  ensue — the  manner, 
often  so  strange  and  impressive,  in  which  these  fears  were 
dissipated — the  grace  and  wisdom  given  to  those  who  chiefly 
guided  the  deliberations — the  brotherly  and  confiding  tone 
which,  broken  a  little  at  the  beginning,  deepened  at  the  close 
into  one  of  pure  and  perfect  harmony — the  noble  sentiments 
of  heroic  faith  and  devotedness,  sometimes  so  simply,  some- 
times so  eloquently  expressed — the  spirit  of  prayer  which, 
breathing  from  the  lips  of  Mr.  M'Cheyne  or  Dr.  M'Donald, 
conveyed  a  profounder  sense  of  the  Divine  presence  than  we 
ever  felt  before  or  since  in  the  most  hallowed  of  our  Christian 
assembhes. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

LETTER  TO  MR.  LENNOX— FINAL  ANSWER  OF  THE 
GOVERNMENT— LETTER  FROM  SIR  JAMES  GRAHAM 
—THE  DEBATE  IN  PARLIAMENT— THE  CLAIM  OF 
RIGHTS  REJECTED  BY  THE  LEGISLATURE— THE  DIS- 
RUPTION. 

Writing  to  Mr.  Lennox  of  New  York,  on  the  31st  De- 
cember, 1842,  Dr.  Chalmers  says — "You  may  perhaps  have, 
by  this  time,  heard  of  the  proceedings  of  our  Convocation  in 
November  last.  Between  four  and  five  hundred  of  our  best 
ministers  have  subscribed  a  Memorial  to  Government,  by 
which  they  commit  themselves  to  the  rehnquishment  of  the 
Church's  temporalities,  if  they  are  not  permitted  to  hold 
them  but  on  the  condition  of  being  subjected  to  the  Civil 
Courts  in  things  spiritual,  on  the  footing  of  the  decision  by 
the  House  of  Lords  in  the  case  of  Auchterarder.  And,  if 
the  Parliament  grant  us  no  redress,  I  have  no  doubt  that 
the  decision  of  our  Convocation  in  November  will  be  the 
decision  of  our  General  Assembly  in  May.  It  lies  therefore 
with  our  statesmen  whether  there  shall  not  be  an  utter  dis- 
ruption of  our  Church  in  a  few  months.  None  of  us  are  at 
all  sanguine  of  a  favorable  measure  at  their  hands,  and  we 
are  therefore  laying  our  account  with  the  connection  being 
dissolved  early  in  summer.  The  eyes  of  the  country  are 
opening  to  this  fact  as  to  a  coming  certainty,  and  I  feel 
great  confidence  that,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  we  shall  be 
able  to  resolve  ourselves  into  a  great  Home  Mission,  and  take 
possession  of  the  land.  I  do  hope  that  henceforth  our  friends 
the  Voluntaries  will  think  more  generously  of  us  than  they 
have  done  heretofore.  Not  that  we  renounce  the  principle 
of  a  National  EstabUshment  of  Christianity,  for  we  think  it 


318  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

quite  possible  to  harmonize  this  with  the  principle  of  spiritual 
independence.  It  will  be  the  fault  of  our  rulers  if  the  two 
are  not  harmonized ;  and  I  do  hope  we  shall  get  a  little  more 
credit  at  the  hands  of  our  adversaries  when  they  find  us 
giving  up  all  the  endowments  of  a  National  Church  so  soon 
as  it  is  determined  that  we  shall  not  be  permitted  to  hold 
them  but  at  the  expense  of  our  Christian  liberties.  Should 
this  take  place,  it  will  be  of  first  rate  importance  that  we, 
the  ejected  ministers,  and  they,  the  evangelical  dissenters, 
should  act  with  a  common  and  cordial  understanding  together, 
as  there  is  now  a  most  formidable  enemy,  rising  every  day 
into  greater  strength,  in  the  Puseyism  of  England,  and  which 
threatens  to  bring  back  upon  our  fair  island  the  intolerance 
and  all  the  superstitions  of  Pvome." 

Having  done  what  she  could  to  clear  away  all  ambiguity 
from  her  principles  and  position,  the  Church  waited  the  final 
answer  of  the  Government,  which  was  conveyed  in  a  letter 
from  Sir  James  Graham,  dated  Whitehall,  January,  4,  1843. 
The  Church  felt  that  she  had  good  reason  to  complain  of 
this  communication.  When  her  integrity  as  one  of  the  most 
valuable  institutions  of  the  country,  and  the  status  and  live- 
lihood of  so  many  of  her  clergymen  and  their  families  were 
at  stake,  she  had  reason  to  expect  that  in  rejecting  a  claim 
upon  which  so  much  was  periled,  that  claim  would  be 
correctly  stated,  and  that  the  pleas  urged  in  support  of  it 
would  be  fairly  and  broadly  met.  The  Government  was 
not  ignorant  that  the  abolition  of  patronage  had  never  been 
put  by  the  Church  on  the  same  footing  with  the  protection 
of  her  spiritual  jurisdiction.  The  very  last  document  put 
into  their  hands — the  Memorial  from  the  Convocation — had 
told  them  what  the  one  vital  point  was  upon  which  the 
Church  hinged  her  continued  alliance  with  the  vState.  Over- 
looking this  Memorial  altogether,  and  taking  advantage  of 
the  fact  that  the  General  Assembly  of  1842  had  transmitted 
two  addresses  to  the  Crown — the  one  praying  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  patronage,   and   the   other  that  her  spiritual  inde- 


.m\  G3.  LETTER  FROM  SIR  JAMES  GRAHAM.  319 

pendence  should  be  secured,  Sir  James  mixed  the  two  to- 
gether, giving  one  answer  to  both,  to  the  inevitable  and 
injurious  confounding  of  topics  which  the  Church  had  been 
at  so  much  pains  to  keep  distinct.  It  gave  him  no  incon- 
siderable advantage  to  deal  conjunctly  with  the  two  demands, 
and  it  helped  to  win  a  larger  amount  of  popular  concurrence 
with  their  refusal ;  but  the  Church  had  the  impression  that 
such  a  piece  of  dexterous  policy  was  scarcely  suited  either  to 
her  sacred  character  or  the  anxious  circumstances  in  which 
so  many  of  her  ministers  were  placed.  She  felt  still  more 
aggrieved  by  the  gross  mis-statement  of  her  Claim  of  Rights 
of  which  Sir  James  was  guilty  when  he  represented  her  as 
demanding  that  all  her  "  proceedings,  whether  legislative  or 
judicial,  should  be  beyond  the  cognizance  of  the  courts  of 
law," — that  these  courts  "should  have  no  power  to  determ- 
ine whether  matters  brought  before  them  were  within  the 
scope  of  their  authority,  if  in  the  opinion  of  the  Church  these 
matters  involved  any  spiritual  consideration," — and  that 
"neither  sentences  of  courts  nor  decrees  of  the  House  of  Lords 
should  be  effectual  if  they  interfered  with  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  Church,  of  which  interference  and  of  which 
spiritual  considerations  the  Church  itself  was  to  be  the  ex- 
clusive judge."  This  was  to  identify  the  Claim  of  Rights 
with  the  arrogant  pretensions  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and 
that  in  face  of  the  notorious  fact,  that  her  peculiar  connection 
with  the  State  had  from  the  beginning  been  described  and 
vindicated  by  the  Scottish  Establishment  as  lying  midway 
between  the  two  extremes — the  extreme  of  Popery,  which 
asserts  the  entire  supremacy  of  the  Church  over  the  State, 
and  claims  for  the  former  a  total  exemption  from  all  species 
of  civil  control ;  and  the  extreme  of  Erastianism,  which 
asserts  the  entire  supremacy  of  the  State  over  the  Church, 
and  denies  to  the  latter  any  peculiar  sphere  of  action  free 
from  the  reach  of  secular  authority  and  control.  The  pain- 
ful feeling  excited  by  this  misrepresentation  was  aggravated 
when  it  was  noticed  that  instead  of  dealing  with  the  statutory 


320  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  184?, 

and  constitutional  pleas  advanced  by  the  Church  in  support 
of  her  claims,  these  were  summarily  disposed  of  by  the  general 
allegation  that  to  yield  to  them  would  "  lead  directly  ta 
despotic  power;"  the  adverse  judgment  of  the  Government 
being  based  not  upon  a  consideration  of  what  rights  the 
Church  already  possessed,  but  of  what  rights  they  conceived 
it  safe  for  her  to  enjoy. 

In  vindication  of  the  course  followed  by  the  Civil  Courts, 
Sir  James  Graham  traced  all  those  encroachments  which 
had  been  complained  of  to  a  previous  aggression  made  by  the 
Church  on  the  vested  rights  of  patrons.  More  than  one  in- 
stance has  been  already  given  in  which  the  Court  of  Session 
assumed  and  attempted  to  exercise  authority  over  the  Church 
when  no  civil  right  was  directly  or  indirectly  affected.  Had 
any  doubt,  however,  upon  this  point  remained,  it  must  have 
been  removed  by  a  judgment  of  that  Court  delivered  a  few 
days  after  Sir  James's  letter  reached  Edinburgh.  It  has 
been  already  mentioned  that  one  effect  of  the  reforming 
measures  adopted  by  the  evangelical  majority,  was  the  return 
into  the  bosom  of  the  Church  of  a  body  of  dissenters  bearing 
the  name  of  the  Associate  Synod.  The  clergymen  of  this 
Synod  were  admitted  as  members  of  the  respective  Presby- 
teries within  whose  bounds  their  charges  were  situated,  and 
these  Presbyteries  were  proceeding  to  attach  a  territorial 
district  to  their  churches.  The  Presbytery  of  Irvine  had  in 
this  way  received  the  Pwev.  Mr.  Clelland,  minister  at  Stew- 
arton,  into  their  court,  and  were  engaged  in  allocating  to 
him  a  special  district  for  the  purpose  of  pastoral  superin- 
tendence and  spiritual  discipline,  when  an  interdict  was 
served  upon  them  prohibiting  them  from  receiving  Mr.  Clel- 
land as  a  member  of  Presbytery,  and  from  establishing  an 
additional  pastoral  charge  in  the  parish.  The  Church  for  a 
hundred  years  and  more  had  been  admitting  additional  min- 
isters into  her  courts,  and  creating  new  parishes  quoad  spirit- 
ualici,  and  the  validity  of  her  acts  had  been  recognized  by 
decisions  of  the  Civil  Court.      Her  title  was  now  for  the  first 


^T.  63.  THE  STEWARTON  CASE.  321 

time  challenged,  upon  the  ground  that,  as  a  State-created 
institution,  she  could  have  no  authority  and  exercise  no  priv- 
ilege which  had  not  been  expressly  granted  to  her  by  statute. 
This  case  was  so  novel  and  important  that  it  was  brought 
before  all  the  judges  of  the  Court  of  Session.  Their  decision, 
delivered  on  the  20th  January,  1843,  was  to  the  effect,  that 
the  Church  had  acted  illegally  in  receiving  such  ministers 
as  Mr.  Clelland,  and  in  placing  any  part  of  an  original  parish 
under  their  spiritual  care.  This  judgment  was  one  of  wide 
compass,  applying  as  it  did  not  only  to  the  members  of  the 
Associate  Synod,  but  to  all  the  unendowed  clergymen  re- 
cently admitted  into  the  Church.  Its  effect,  if  submitted  to, 
would  have  been  to  extinguish  about  two  hundred  pastoral 
charges,  and  to  annihilate  as  many  kirk-sessions,  by  whose 
vigorous  agency  a  considerable  inroad  had  been  already 
made  upon  the  ignorance  and  irreligion  of  many  of  the  most 
overgrown  parishes.  It  is  one  of  the  simplest  and  most 
harmless  privileges  which  any  society  can  enjoy,  that  of 
adding  to  the  number  of  its  office-bearers,  and  of  originating 
methods  by  which  their  labors  on  behalf  of  the  great  objects 
of  the  institution  may  be  most  effectively  prosecuted.  This 
privilege  was  now  denied  to  the  Scottish  Establishment. 
Taken  in  conjunction  with  a  previous  decision  ©f  the  Court 
of  Session,  that  all  the  Sabbath  collections  at  the  doors  of 
the  churches  belonged  to  the  heritors  for  the  behoof  of  the 
poor,  this  judgment  of  that  Court  overturned  the  whole  work 
of  Church  Extension  as  an  attempt  to  break  down  the 
unmanageable  masses  which  had  accumulated  in  so  many 
parishes,  and  threw  them  back  upon  the  exclusive  pastoral 
superintendence  of  a  single  clergyman.  In  other  circum- 
stances, the  Church  might  have  attempted,  by  appeal  to  the 
House  of  Lords,  to  obtain  a  reversal  of  a  sentence  so  fatal  to 
her  progress,  so  pregnant  with  injury  to  the  highest  interests 
of  the  country.  As  it  was,  she  received  it  as  a  last  token 
of  the  hopelessness  of  any  recognition  of  her  spiritual  inde- 
jieudence  by  the  Court  of  Session,  and  she  engrossed  it  as 


322  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

the  last  specimen  of  the  injustice  which  had  been  done  her 
in  that  petition  which,  at  a  meeting  of  Commission  held  on 
the  31st  January,  it  was  resolved  should  be  presented  to  the 
British  Legislature.  In  the  letter  of  the  Home  Secretary  a 
direct  and  emphatic  negative  had  been  put  upon  her  claims 
by  the  executive  Government.  If  the  voice  of  the  Legisla- 
ture re-echoed  and  confirmed  that  negative,  she  had  declared 
that  this  would  be  regarded  as  a  conclusive  determination  by 
the  supreme  power  in  the  State  that  she  held  her  temporal- 
ities on  the  condition  of  implicit  submission  to  the  decisions 
of  the  Civil  Courts.  As  that  condition  was  one  which  she 
could  not  conscientiously  fulfill,  she  had  announced  it  to  be 
her  purpose  to  relinquish  the  pecuniary  advantages  conferred 
by  the  State,  and  on  the  broad  ground  of  British  toleration 
throw  herself  upon  the  support  of  the  country.  Mr.  Fox 
Maule  brought  the  important  petition  under  the  notice  of 
the  House  of  Commons  on  7th  March — founding  upon  it  a 
motion  that  the  House  should  resolve  itself  into  a  committee 
to  take  into  consideration  the  grievances  of  which  the  Church 
of  Scotland  complained.  Mr.  Maule,  Mr.  Campbell  of 
Monzie,  Sir  George  Grey,  Mr.  Butherfurd,  and  Mr.  P.  M. 
Stewart  stated  the  case  for  the  Church  so  temperately,  so 
judiciously,  and  so  comprehensively,  as  left  the  Church  no- 
thing either  to  desire  or  to  regret.  Sir  James  Graham  reit- 
erated the  sentiments  embodied  in  his  letter,  and  closed  his 
speech  by  saying,  that  the  sooner  the  House  extinguished  the 
expectation  of  the  Church  the  better,  "  because  he  was  satis- 
fied that  any  such  expectation  never  could  be  realized  in  any 
country  in  which  law,  or  equity,  or  order,  or  common  sense 
prevailed."  Lord  John  Russell,  with  many  expressions  of 
regret  at  a  calamity  which  he  feared  was  impending,  could 
not  withhold  his  consent  from  the  opinions  as  to  the  Church's 
jurisdiction  laid  down  by  Sir  James  Graham.  "  My  right 
honorable  friend,"  said  his  Lordship,  "the  member  for  Leith, 
has  said  that  the  Church  did  not  claim  supreme  power  save 
over  what  was  spiritual,  and  that  she  allowed  of  the  civil 


JET.  63.  THE  DEBATE  IN  PARLIAMENT. 


303 


authority  in  other  matters,  but  I  can  not  conceive  the  con- 
nection between   Church   and   State  carried  on  under  such 
conditions."      Sir  Robert  Peel  took  a  broader  view  than  any 
ot    the  preceding  speakers   of  the   nature  of  the   Church's 
demands,  and  of  the  results  which  would  flow  from  conceding 
them.      The  right  honorable  gentleman  opposite  says    that 
these  Courts— the  Civil  and  Ecclesiastical— have  a  co-ordi- 
nate jurisdiction.     Now,  I  think  that  it  has  been  very  clearly 
shown,  that  would  amount  to  something  very  like  a  separa- 
tion of  Church  and  State.      It  is  in  fact  impossible  that  the 
two  Courts  can  co-exist.      Why,  take  the  case  of  the  Roman 
Catholic   religion  or    the    Dissenters.       The   latter    are   no 
doubt,  quite  entitled,  as  a  Voluntary  Church,  to  decide  with 
reference  to  their  own  aflkirs  ;   but  if  a  Church  chooses  to 
participate  in   the  advantages  appertaining  to  an  Establish- 
ment, that  Church,  whether  it  be  the  Church  of  England 
the  Church  of  Rome,  or  the  Church  of  Scotland,  that  Church 
must  conform  itself  to  the  law.      It  would  be  an  anomaly- 
it  would  be  an  absurdity,  that  a  Church  should  possess  the 
privilege,  and  enjoy  the  advantages  of  connection  with  the 
State,  and,  nevertheless,  claim  exemption  from  the  obligations 
which  wherever  there  is  an  authority  must  of  necessity  exist ; 
and  this  House  and  the  country  never  could  lay  it  down 
that  if  a  dispute  should  arise  in  respect  of  the  statute  law  of 
the  land,  such  dispute  should  be  referred  to  a  tribunal  not 
subject  to  an  appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords.   *   *  #  I  con- 
sider that  a  great  principle  is  involved  in  this  matter      If 
peace  could  be  secured— if  the  rights  of  the  subject  could  be 
rnaintamed   consistently  with  the   demands   of  the  Church 
then  indeed,  such  is  my  opinion  of  the  pressing  evils  of  this 
protracted  disputation,  that  I  should  almost  be  induced  to 
make  any  concession  in  order  to  obtain  tranquillity.     But  my 
belief  is  that  such  claims,  were  you  to  concede  them,  would 
be  unlimited  in  their  extent.      They  could  not  be  limited  to 
the  Church  of  Scotland.      A  principle,  then,  is  involved,  and 
if  the  principle  be  conceded  by  the  House  of  Commons,  why, 


324  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

the  House  of  Commons  must  be  prepared  to  carry  it  out. 
*  *  *  My  belief  is,  that  there  is  abroad,  both  in  this 
country,  in  Scotland,  and  in  other  countries,  after  a  long 
series  of  religious  contentions  and  neglect  of  the  duties  of 
religion,  a  spirit  founded  upon  just  views  in  connection  with 
the  subject.  But  I  hope,  that  in  effecting  this  object,  an 
attempt  will  not  be  made  to  establish  a  spiritual  or  ecclesias- 
tical supremacy  above  the  other  tribunals  of  the  countiy,  and 
that  in  conjunction  with  increased  attention  to  the  duties  of 
religion  the  laws  of  the  country  will  be  maintained.  If  the 
House  of  Commons  is  prepared  to  depart  from  those  prin- 
ciples on  which  the  Reformation  was  founded,  and  which 
principles  are  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  the  civil  and 
religious  liberties  of  the  country,  nothing  but  evil  would 
result,  the  greatest  evil  of  which  would  be  the  establishment 
of  religious  domination,  which  would  alike  endanger  the 
religion  of  the  country  and  the  civil  rights  of  man." 

The  debate,  which  was  conducted  throughout  in  a  temper 
and  spirit  befitting  the  importance  of  the  subject,  closed  after 
the  second  evening's  discussion,  when  seventy-six  voted  for 
Mr.  Maule's  motion  and  two  hundred  and  forty-one  against 
it.  But  while  so  large  a  majority  of  the  whole  House  re- 
jected the  motion,  the  Scotch  members,  in  the  proportion 
of  more  than  two  to  one,  voted  in  its  favor.  The  voice  of 
Scotland,  as  expressed  by  her  representatives,  was  overborne. 
A  purely  Scottish  question,  which  touched  to  the  quick  the 
constitution  of  the  Scottish  Kirk,  was  decided  by  members 
of  the  Anglican  Church,  and  upon  principles  applicable  alike 
to  all  religious  establishments.  The  idea  of  two  co-ordinate 
authorities — the  secular  and  the  spiritual — ''  did  appear"  to 
Sir  James  Graham  "  unjust  and  unreasonable."*  Lord  John 
Russell  could  not  conceive  of  its  practical  realization.  Sir 
Robert  Peel  declared  it  to  be  anomalous,  absurd,  impossible. 
But  it  did  not  occur  to  any  of  these  eminent  politicians  that 
the  very  kind  of  union  which  they  repudiated  had  at  a  very 
*  See  ante,  p.  30. 


JET.  63.  THE  DEBATE  IN  PARLIAMENT.  325 


early  period  been  described  by  the  Scottish  Church,  and  that 
in  terms  almost  identical  with  those  employed  in  the  Claim 
of  Rights,  as  the  only  kind  of  union  with  the  State  into  which 
the  Church  felt  itself  at  liberty  to  enter — had  been  sanctioned 
by  Scottish  Parliaments,  and  had  peacefully  and  prosperously 
been  carried  on  for  more  than  two  hundred  years.  Even  if 
the  abstract  and  theoretical  ground  upon  which  this  species 
of  connection  between  Church  and  State  was  disallowed,  had 
been  valid,  the  Scottish  Establishment  might  reasonably 
enough  have  complained  that  the  question  was  not  restricted, 
as  it  ought  to  have  been,  to  an  inquiry,  historical  and  stat- 
utory, into  her  original  and  actual  constitution.  That  consti- 
tution should  not  have  been  violated  even  although  its  leading 
pecuharity — its  refusal  of  the  civil  supremacy  in  spiritual 
affairs — was  discordant  with  Anglican  ideas.  Jt  seemed  hard 
that  a  principle  so  dear  to  Scotland,  and  to  which,  through 
so  many  periods  of  persecution,  that  country  had  remained 
so  faithful,  should  be  sacrificed  to  a  general  theory  formed 
by  English  politicians  as  to  what  the  alliance  between  the 
Church  and  State  ought  to  be.  But  the  sense  of  injustice  was 
quickened  into  wonder  as  the  Church  listened  to  the  broad 
and  sweeping  terms  in  which  that  principle  was  characterized. 
The  two  great  Tory  leaders  concurred  in  denouncing  it  as 
one,  the  concession  of  which  would  be  dangerous  alike  to 
the  civil  and  religious  liberties  of  the  country.  It  seemed 
strange  to  a  Church  which  had  done  so  much  for  freedom 
to  have  its  most  distinctive  feature  thus  characterized.  It 
had  not  appeared  in  such  a  light  to  the  men  to  whom  Scotland 
owed  its  deliverance  from  the  grinding  yoke  of  Popish  bond- 
age, nor  to  those  by  whom  the  tyranny  of  the  Stuarts  was 
so  heroically  resisted,  and  who  upheld  the  cause  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty  in  these  lands,  when  no  others  were  bold 
enough  to  take  the  field.  Nor  was  it  very  easy  to  make  out, 
when  the  matter  was  looked  at  in  its  abstract  shape,  what 
danger  to  civil  liberty  could  arise  from  giving  to  a  Church, 
when  brought  into  connection  with  the  State,  the  same  free- 


326  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

(lorn  which  every  Church  out  of  that  connection  enjoyed — 
how  a  liberty  which  it  was  admitted  could  be  safely  exercised 
without  the  pale  of  the  Establishment,  at  once  became  so 
pernicious  if  exercised  within  that  pale.  The  State  might  not 
choose  to  bestow  its  gifts  without  exacting  an  equivalent.  It 
might  not  be  willing  to  enter  into  alliance  with  any  Church 
which  would  not  barter  away  a  part,  at  least,  of  its  spiritu- 
al liberties  in  return  for  the  temporal  advantages  bestowed. 
Statesmen,  in  dread  of  that  religious  fervor  so  apt  to  appear 
to  them  under  the  odious  aspect  of  fanaticism,  might  regard  it 
as  a  needful  and  salutary  arrangement,  that  the  religious  com- 
munity, raised  by  favor  of  the  State  to  the  position  of  greatest 
eminence  and  influence,  should  constantly,  and  as  to  all  its 
proceedings,  be  kept  under  State  control.  But  the  wisest  and 
best  friends  of  religious  establishments  could  not  but  regard 
it  as  a  fatal  injury  inflicted  on  that  cause,  when  it  was  so 
broadly  and  authoritatively  affirmed,  that  no  union  between 
Church  and  State  could  legally  exist,  or  safely  be  endured, 
save  that  which  implied  implicit  subjection  on  the  one  side, 
and  authoritative  control  on  the  other. 

The  decision  of  the  Legislature,  however,  was  so  far  satis- 
factory that  it  was  free  from  all  ambiguity.  It  put  a  dis- 
tinct and  conclusive  negative  upon  the  claims  of  the  Church. 
It  closed  the  perplexing  negotiations  of  five  fruitless  years — 
turning  away  from  which  the  Church  set  herself  to  a  busy 
preparation  for  the  new  condition  which  awaited  her.  The 
clergymen  who  had  signed  the  resolutions  of  the  Convocation 
lost  no  time  in  explaining  to  their  congregations  the  import- 
ant step  which  had  been  taken,  and  in  inviting  their  adher- 
ence. Acting  under  the  direction  of  a  Committee  appointed 
by  the  Convocation,  the  ablest  of  their  number  were  deputed 
to  itinerate  over  the  country,  holding  meetings  in  every  par- 
ish to  which  they  could  find  access,  announcing  to  the  peo- 
ple their  principles  and  final  purposes,  and  obtaining  a  large 
and  hopeful  amount  of  popular  concurrence.  All  this,  how- 
ever, did  not  satisfy  Dr.  Chalmers,  whose  grand  device  for 


JET.  63.  PRELIMINARY  PREPARATIONS.  327 

meeting  the  coming  crisis  was  the  organization  of  local  asso- 
ciations, upon  the  plan  and  for  the  purposes  indicated  in  his 
address  to  the  Convocation.  Unable  to  persuade  others  to 
unite  with  him,  he  instituted  of  his  own  accord,  immediately 
after  the  Convocation  broke  up,  an  association  of  this  kind  in 
the  parish  of  Morningside,  where  he  resided.  Districts  were 
laid  down,  collectors  were  appointed,  donations  for  erecting 
the  churches,  and  termly  subscriptions  for  the  support  of  the 
ministers  of  the  Free  Church  were  obtained,  six  months  be- 
fore that  Church  had  a  substantive  existence  in  the  country. 
The  letter  from  Sir  James  Graham  opened  the  eyes  of  many 
to  the  necessity  of  more  instant  and  practical  measures  of 
preparation,  and  at  last  the  Committee,  appointed  by  the 
Convocation,  united  itself  with  another  Committee,  instituted 
at  an  influential  meeting  of  the  eldership,  held  at  Edinburgh, 
on  the  1st  February.  This  most  effective  body,  organized 
under  the  title  of  the  Provisional  Committee,  held  its  first 
meeting  on  the  following  day,  and  to  its  labors  the  Free 
Church  mainly  owes  that  state  of  orderly  preparation  and 
absence  of  all  division  and  confusion  by  which  the  days  of  the 
Disruption  were  so  signally  characterized.  The  Provisional 
Committee  divided  itself  into  three  sections,  the  Financial, 
the  Architectural,  and  the  Statistical.  Dr.  Chalmers  took 
his  position  at  the  head  of  the  first  of  these  sections.  The 
task  for  which  he  had  been  so  long  reserving  himself  was 
now  put  into  his  hands  ;  and  with  an  energy  scarcely  par- 
alleled in  the  busiest  periods  of  his  past  history  he  set  him- 
self to  its  execution.  A  circular,  inviting  subscriptions  and 
donations,  was  instantly  drawn  up  by  him,  and  sent  in  thou- 
sands over  Scotland,  bearing  the  mottoes — "  Surely  T  will 
not  come  into  the  tabernacle  of  my  house,  nor  go  up  into  my 
bed  :  I  will  not  give  sleep  to  mine  eyes,  nor  slumber  to  mine 
eyelids,  until  I  find  out  a  place  for  the  Lord,  an  habitation  for 
the  mighty  God  of  Jacob." — "  The  God  of  heaven  He  will 
prosper  us  ;  therefore  we  his  servants  will  arise  and  build." 
The  acts  which  followed  were  in  good  correspondence  with 


328  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 


these  mottoes.  As  preliminary  to  those  local  and  detailed 
operations,  to  which  he  attached  such  primary  importance, 
Dr.  Chalmers  addressed  a  large  and  influential  meeting,  held 
at  Edinburgh,  on  the  evening  of  the  16th  February.  "This 
meeting,"  he  said,  "  is  not  for  argument,  but  for  action.  I 
think  that  the  reasoners  upon  this  question  have  done  their 
work.  The  time  for  argument  is  now  over,  and  the  time 
for  action  has  come  on.  We  have  entered  upon  a  new  era, 
the  era  of  deeds,  which  has  followed  the  era  of  speeches,  and 
arguments,  and  memorials,  and  manifestos.  *  *  ^  Some 
people  are  extremely  fond  of  deliberative  meetings.  They 
have  a  greater  taste  and  are  more  qualified  for  the  field  of 
deliberation  than  the  field  of  action,  in  which  former  field 
they  act  as  penmen,  as  spokesmen,  as  framers  and  movers  of 
resolutions,  and  have  withal  a  marvelous  faculty  of  thread- 
ing their  way  through  a  cumbrous  and  elaborate  mechanism 
of  committees  and  sub-committees,  so  interwoven  with  each 
other  that  the  whole  becomes  a  very  complicated  affair.  And 
then  they  go  on  consulting  and  deliberating,  and  treading 
upon  each  other,  and  no  one  going  forward  :  and  all  the 
while  there  are  thousands  of  hearts  burning  with  desire  to 
support  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland  if  they 
only  knew  what  they  had  to,  do.  That  method  of  saying 
much  and  doing  little  is  not  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  this 
period.  About  ten  days  ago  we  began  what  might  have  been 
begun  and  broken  loose  upon  ten  weeks  ago,  and  the  result 
has  been  a  meeting — a  meeting  of  names,  at  least,  if  not  of 
persons.  Yes,  and  there  have  been  resolutions  too,  and  with 
all  my  antipathy  to  resolutions,  the  resolutions  I  hold  in  my 
hand  are  vastly  to  my  taste.  They  are  resolutions  carried 
into  effect  without  either  a  seconder,  or  a  meeting,  or  any 
vote  at  all  upon  the  subject.  The  first  resolution  is  by  a 
lady,  and  her  resolution  is,  that  she  shall  transmit  for  the 
support  of  the  Free  Presbyterian  Church  the  sum  of  one 
thousand  pounds  sterling.  The  next  resolution  is  by  a  per- 
son who  calls  himself  a  Dissenter,  and  his  resolution  is  to  give 


JET.  63.  THE  ERA  OF  DEEDS.  329 

£500.  *  *  *  This  brief  circular  was  only  sent  forth  a  few 
days  ago,  and  the  amount  of  subscription,  though  we  have 
yfit  merely  broken  ground,  is  £  1 8,550.  It  has  come  in  upon 
us  like  a  set  rain  at  the  rate  of  £1000  a  day."  Having 
warned  his  audience  against  the  delusive  influence  of  these 
large  subscriptions,  all  of  which  would  be  absorbed  at  once 
in  the  work  of  erecting  their  Church,  Dr.  Chalmers  proceeded 
to  point  out  the  paramount  importance  of  those  smaller,  more 
numerous,  but  periodically  sustained  contributions,  on  which 
the  support  of  a  Christian  ministry  was  to  depend.  Having 
described  the  apparatus  by  help  of  which  he  hoped  not  only 
to  see  a  maintenance  provided  for  all  the  outgoing  clergy- 
men, but  the  blessings  of  Christian  instruction  extendefl  over 
the  land — "  When  we  come  to  that,"  he  said,  ''  and  I  think 
it  may  be  soon,  I  should  feel  myself  in  my  old  element — as 
at  my  old  work  of  Church  Extension  in  Scotland.  For 
Church  Extension  I  knocked  at  the  door  of  a  Whig  minis- 
istry,  and  they  refused  to  endow.  I  then  knocked  at  the 
door  of  a  Tory  ministry  :  they  perhaps  would  have  endowed, 
but  they  offered  to  enslave.  I  now  therefore  turn  aside  from 
both,  and  knock  at  the  door  of  the  general  population.  *  =^  * 
To  make  Ireland  what  he  wanted  it  to  be,  O'Connell  gave 
forth  his  watchword — '  Agitate,  agitate,  agitate  ;'  and  the 
consequence  was,  that  Ireland  for  a  few  years  was  lord  of  the 
ascendant.  To  make  England  what  he  wanted  it  to  be,  and 
to  shake  the  empire  loose  from  the  power  of  that  agitation, 
Sir  Robert  Peel  gave  forth  another  watchword — '  Register, 
register,  register  ;'  and  the  consequence  is,  that  Toryism, 
with  all  its  high  church  inveteracy,  and  all  its  old  antipathies 
to  evangelical  religion,  is  now  seated  in  absolute  supremacy 
over  the  land.  Scotland  seeks  no  ascendency,  and  she  neither 
hopes  for,  nor  is  ambitious  of  power.  She  seeks  the  Chris- 
tian freedom  of  her  Church  and  the  Christian  good  of  her 
people,  and  to  make  out  this,  let  her  watchword  be — '  Or- 
ganize, organize,  organize.'  We  know  that  without  prayer 
no  human  effort,  no  human  wisdom  can  be  of  any  avail ; 


330  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 


and  we  confess  our  main  dependence  to  be  on  the  prayers  of 
the  Christian  people  of  the  land.  But  we  also  know  that 
prayer  does  not  supersede  either  effort  or  wisdom.  There- 
fore I  repeat — '  Organize,  organize,  organize  ;'  and  without 
the  objects  of  the  demagogue  on  the  one  hand,  or  of  the 
statesman  on  the  other,  let  us  not  cease  our  endeavors  till, 
by  the  blessing  of  God,  the  country  in  which  we  live  becomes 
a  sacred  land  of  light  and  liberty — a  portion  of  that  greatest 
and  best  of  empires — the  empire  of  truth  and  righteousness." 
Having  addressed  a  meeting  in  Glasgow  held  for  a  like  ob- 
ject. Dr.  Chalmers  devoted  himself  to  the  forming  and  foster- 
ing into  vigorous  operation  of  Local  Associations  all  over  the 
country.  Every  hour  he  could  spare  from  the  duties  of  the 
Theological  Class  was  now  consecrated  to  this  work — every 
day  he  was  to  be  found  presiding  at  the  meeting  of  Com- 
mittee, and  directing  and  stimulating  his  willing  fellow- 
}aborers. 

The  fruits  of  all  this  toil  shall  presently  be  laid  before 
the  reader.  Meanwhile  let  us  preserve  one  interesting  notice 
of  its  progress.  Writing  to  Mr.  Lennox,  on  the  19th  April, 
1843,  Dr.  Chalmers  says  :  "  Our  crisis  is  rapidly  approach- 
ing. We  are  making  every  effort  for  the  erection  and  sus- 
tentation  of  a  Free  Church,  in  the  event  of  our  disruption 
from  the  State,  which  will  take  place  we  expect  in  four  weeks. 
I  am  glad  to  say,  that  the  great  bulk  and  body  of  the  common 
people,  with  a  goodly  proportion  of  the  middle  classes,  are 
upon  our  side,  though  it  bodes  ill  for  the  country  that  the 
higher  classes  are  almost  universally  against  us.  Notwith- 
standing this,  however,  we  are  forming  associations  for  weekly 
payments  in  rapid  progression  all  over  the  country,  and  I  am 
glad  to  say,  that  by  this  day's  post  they  amount  to  four  hun- 
dred and  five.  We  expect  that  by  the  meeting  of  our  General 
Assembly,  the  country  will  be  half  organized,  and  are  looking 
for  a  great  additional  impulse  from  the  Disruption,  when  it 
actually  takes  place.  I  am  hopeful  that  ere  the  summer  is 
ended,  we  may  number  about  a  thousand  associations,  or  as 


iET.  63.  PUBLIC  liNCREDULITY.  331 

many  as  there  are  parishes  in  Scotlajid,  so  that  unless  there 
be  an  attempt  to  crush  us  by  persecution,  I  have  no  fear  of  our 
getting  on.  But  the  Lord  reigneth,  and  He  alone  knoweth 
the  end  from  the  beginning.  Let  us  look  to  His  providence 
and  grace,  without  which  there  can  be  no  security  from  with- 
out, nor  vital  prosperity  within.   *-    Thomas  Chalmers." 

The  faith  in  one  another,  and  the  fervid  activity  in  prospect 
of  the  Disruption,  displayed  by  Dr.  Chalmers  and  his  asso- 
ciates, found  a  singular  contrast  in  the  apathy  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  the  infatuated  incredulity  of  the  public  generally. 
When  the  difficulties  in  which  the  Moderate  party  should 
be  placed,  on  the  event  of  so  many  of  their  brethren  being 
forced  out  of  the  Church,  had  been  alluded  to  in  the  Presby- 
tery of  Edinburgh  :  "  It  has  been  tauntingly  asked,"  said  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Grant,  "  how,  even  if  we  were  successful,  we  could 
carry  on  the  Church  ?  I  should  like  to  know,  before  answer- 
ing the  question,  how  many  of  our  opponents  are  to  leave  us? 
Dr.  Grant  was  more  excusable  in  speaking  so,  as  the  Con- 
vocation had  not  then  met,  nor  had  he  the  resolution  of  that 
memorable  assembly  before  him.  But  we  find  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Gumming  of  London,  after  the  Convocation,  and  with  the 
full  knowledge  that  the  honor  and  good  faith  of  more  than 
four  hundred  Scottish  clergymen  were  solemnly  pledged  to 
retire  from  the  Establishment,  publicly  affirming — "  If  Gov- 
ernment is  firm,  I  venture,  from  pretty  accurate  information, 
to  assert  that  less  than  one  hundred  will  cover  the  whole 
secession.  *  =^  *  The  few  manses  and  pulpits  likely  to  be  va- 
cated, will  be  filled  up  with  good  and  holy  ministers.  *  *^  ^ 
The  missionary  schemes  of  the  Church  will  not  be  over- 
thrown ;  they  will  prosper  more  than  they  do  now,  by  being 
released  from  party  domination,  and  incessant  quarrels  and 
squabblings.  *  *  #  But  I  am  not  satisfied  that  any  ivill 
secede.""^   When  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  himself  a  Scotch- 

*  "  Present  State  of  the  Church  of  Scotland."  London,  1843  ;  pp. 
10-16. 


332  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

man,  and  claiming  to  be  so  well  informed,  made  such  public 
announcements  as  these,  we  are  the  less  surprised  at  the  in- 
credulity of  public  and  political  men.  It  is  now  generally 
believed,  that  the  testimony  of  some  such  informants  as  Dr. 
Gumming  had  satisfied  the  Government  that  it  would  be 
only  a  few  of  the  leaders,  who  had  committed  themselves 
too  deeply  to  draw  back,  who  would  secede  ;  and  that  rest- 
ing in  this  conviction,  the  Government  suffered  matters  to 
proceed,  and  did  nothing  to  avert  the  catastrophe.  In  Scot- 
land itself,  with  the  busy  notes  of  preparation  ringing  in  their 
ears,  there  were  multitudes,  comprising  almost  the  entire  mass 
of  the  aristocracy,  who  could  not  to  the  very  last  be  persuaded 
that  more  than  twenty  or  thirty  at  the  utmost  would  throw 
up  their  livings.  It  became  a  favorite  subject  of  betting  at 
their  clubs;  but  even  among  those  most  friendly,  few  would 
peril  any  thing  upon  the  hazard,  that  even  so  many  as  half  of 
those  who  had  pledged  their  word  would  keep  it.  And  the 
capital,  with  all  its  means  and  opportunities  of  observation, 
was  as  incredulous  as  the  country.  "  Mark  my  words," 
wrote  one  of  the  best  informed  and  most  sagacious  citizens 
of  Edinburgh,  a  day  or  two  before  the  Disruption,  "Mark 
my  words — not  forty  of  them  will  go  out." 

The  day  of  trial  at  last  arrived.  For  some  days  previously, 
an  unprecedented  influx  of  strangers  into  Edinburgh  fore- 
shadowed the  approach  of  some  exciting  event.  Thursday,  the 
1 8th  May,  the  day  named  for  the  meeting  of  the  General 
Assembly,  rose  upon  the  city  with  a  dull  and  heavy  dawn.  So 
early  in  the  morning  as  between  four  and  five  o'clock,  the 
doors  of  the  Ghurch  in  which  the  Assembly  was  to  convene* 
opened  to  admit  those  who  hastened  to  take  up  the  most 
favorable  positions,  in  which  they  were  content  to  remain  for 
nine  weary  hours.  As  the  day  wore  on,  it  became  evident 
that  the  ordinary  business  of  the  city  had  to  a  great  extent 
been  suspended,  yet  the  crowds  that  gathered  in  the  streets 

*  St.  Andrew's  Church,  which  had  on  this,  as  on  a  former  occasion, 
been  fitted  up  as  the  Assembly-Hall. 


.^T.  63.  THE  DAY  OF  THE  DISRUPTION.  333 

wore  no  gay  or  holiday  appearance.  As  groups  of  acquaint- 
ances met  and  commingled,  their  conversation  was  obviously 
of  a  grave  and  earnest  cast.  Toward  mid-day,  the  throne- 
room  at  Holyrood,  in  which  the  Marquis  of  Bute,  as  Lord 
High  Commissioner,  held  his  first  levee,  was  filled  with  a 
numerous  assemblage  of  noblemen,  clergymen,  military  and 
naval  officers,  the  city  magistrates,  and  country  gentlemen 
from  all  quarters  of  Scotland.  A  portrait  of  King  William 
III.  hung  upon  the  wall  of  the  room,  opposite  to  the  spot 
on  which  Her  Majesty's  Representative  was  standing.  The 
throng  of  the  levee  was  at  its  height,  when,  loosened  somehow 
from  its  holdings,  this  portrait  fell  heavily  upon  the  floor  ; 
and,  as  it  fell,  a  voice  was  heard  exclaiming,  "  There  goes 
the  Revolution  Settlement."  When  the  levee  closed,  the 
customary  procession  formed  itself  In  his  state-carriage, 
accompanied  by  a  splendid  cortege,  and  escorted  by  a  troop 
of  cavalry,  the  Commissioner  proceeded  to  the  High  Church. 
The  service  was  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Welsh,  the  Mod- 
erator of  the  preceding  Assembly,  whose  discourse  was  made 
all  the  more  impressive  by  the  frequent  allusions  to  the  event 
by  which  it  was  so  instantly  to  be  followed.  Elsewhere,  within 
the  Assembly-Hall,  as  hour  after  hour  passed  by,  the  strained 
feeling  of  the  multitude,  by  whom  every  inch  of  sitting  and 
standing  ground  had  for  so  long  a  time  been  occupied,  was 
beginning  occasionally  to  relax.  At  last,  however,  the  rapid 
entrance  of  a  large  body  of  ministers  into  the  space  railed  ofi' 
below  for  members,  told  that  the  service  at  St.  Giles  was  over. 
Every  symptom  of  languor  at  once  gave  way,  and  expectation 
was  at  its  utmost  stretch.  Dr.  Welsh,  the  Moderator,  entered 
and  took  the  chair.  Soon  afterward.  His  Grace  the  Lord  High 
Commissioner  was  announced,  and  the  whole  assemblage  rose 
and  received  him  standing.  Solemn  prayer  was  then  offered 
up.  The  members  having  resumed  their  seats,  Dr.  Welsh 
rose.  By  the  eager  pressure  forward — the  hush  I  hush  I  that 
burst  from  so  many  lips — the  anxiety  to  hear  threatened  to 
defeat  itself  The  disturbance  lasted  but  a  moment.   "  Fathers 


334  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

and  brethren,"  said  Dr.  Welsh,  and  now  every  syllable  fell 
upon  the  ear  amid  the  breathless  stillness  which  prevailed, 
"  according  to  the  usual  form  of  procedure,  this  is  the  time  for 
making  up  the  roll.  But,  in  consequence  of  certain  proceedings 
affecting  our  rights  and  privileges,  proceedings'  which  have 
been  sanctioned  by  Her  Majesty's  Government,  and  by  the 
Legislature  of  the  country;  and  more  especially,  in  respect 
that  there  has  been  an  infringement  on  the  liberties  of  our 
Constitution,  so  that  we  could  not  now  constitute  this  Court 
without  a  violation  of  the  terms  of  the  union  between  Church 
and  State  in  this  land,  as  now  authoritatively  declared,  I  must 
protest  against  our  proceeding  further.  The  reasons  that  have 
led  me  to  come  to  this  conclusion,  are  fully  set  forth  in  the 
document  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  and  which,  with  per- 
mission of  the  House,  I  will  now  proceed  to  read."  In  this 
document,  after  the  wrongs  of  the  Church  had  been  succinctly 
recited,  the  parties  who  signed  it  proceed  at  its  close  to  say 
— "  We  protest,  that  in  the  circumstances  in  which  we  are 
placed,  it  is  and  shall  be  lawful  for  us,  and  such  other  Com- 
missioners chosen  to  the  Assembly  appointed  to  have  been 
this  day  holden  as  may  concur  with  us,  to  withdraw  to  a  sep- 
arate place  of  meeting,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  steps,  along 
with  all  who  adhere  to  us,  maintaining  with  us  the  Confes- 
sion of  Faith  and  Standards  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  for 
separating  in  an  orderly  way  from  the  Establishment,  and 
thereupon  adopting  such  measures  as  may  be  competent  to 
us,  in  humble  dependence  on  God's  grace,  and  the  aid  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  for  the  advancement  of  his  glory,  the  extension 
of  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  affairs  of  Christ's  house,  according  to  his  holy 
word  :  and  we  now  withdraw  accordingly,  humbly  and  sol- 
emnly acknowledging  the  hand  of  the  Lord  in  the  things 
which  have  come  upon  us  because  of  our  manifold  sins,  and 
the  sins  of  the  Church  and  nation ;  but,  at  the  same  time, 
with  assured  conviction,  that  we  are  not  responsible  for  any 
consequences  that  may  follow  from  this  our  enforced  sep- 


^T.  63.  THE  DISRUPTION. 


335 


aration  from  an  Establishment  which  we  loved  and  prized, 
through  interference  with  conscience,  the  dishonor  done  to 
Christ's  crown,  and  the  rejection  of  His  sole  and  supreme  au- 
thority as  King  in  his  Church."    Having  finished  the  reading 
of  this  Protest,  Dr.  Welsh  laid  it  upon  the  table,  turned  and 
bowed  respectfully  to  the  Commissioner,  left  the  chair,  and 
proceeded  along  the  aisle  to  the  door  of  the  Church.      Dr. 
Chalmers  had  been  standing  immediately  on  his  left.      He 
looked  vacant  and   abstracted  while  the  Protest  was  being 
read  ;   but  Dr.  Welsh's  movement  awakened  him  from  the 
reverie.     Seizing  eagerly  upon  his  hat,  he  hurried  after  him 
with  all  the  air  of  one  impatient  to  be  gone.     Mr.  Campbell 
of  Monzie,  Dr.  Gordon,  Dr.  Macdonald,  Dr.  Macfarlan,  fol- 
lowed him.    The  effect  upon  the  audience  was  overwhelming. 
At  first  a  cheer  burst  from  the  galleries,  but  it  was  almost 
instantly  and  spontaneously  restrained.      It  was  felt  by  all  to 
be  an  expression  of  feeling  unsuited  to  the  occasion  ;   it  was 
checked  in  many  cases  by  an  emotion  too  deep  for  any  other 
utterance  than  the  fall  of  sad  and  silent  tears.      The  whole 
audience  was  now  standing  gazing  in  stillness  upon  the  scene. 
Man  after  man,  row  after  row,  moved  on  along  the  aisle,  till 
the  benches  on  the  left  lately  so  crowded  showed  scarce  an 
occupant.    More  than  400  ministers,  and  a  still  larger  number 
of  elders,  had  withdrawn. 

A  vast  multitude  of  people  stood  congregated  in  George's 
Street,  crowding  in  upon  the  church-doors.  When  the  deed 
was  done  within,  the  intimation  of  it  passed  like  lightning 
through  the  mass  without,  and  when  the  forms  of  their  most 
venerated  clergymen  were  seen  emerging  from  the  Church,  a 
loud  and  irrepressible  cheer  burst  from  their  lips,  and  echoed 
through  the  now  half  empty  Assembly  Hall.  There  was  no 
design  on  the  part  of  the  clergymen  to  form  into  a  procession, 
but  they  were  forced  to  it  by  the  narrowness  of  the  lane 
opened  for  their  egress  through  the  heart  of  the  crowd. 
Falling  into  line,  and  walking  three  abreast,  they  formed  into 
a  column  which  extended  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and  more. 


336  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843 

As  they  moved  along  to  the  new  Hall  prepared  for  their  re- 
ception, very  different  feelings  prevailed  among  the  number- 
less spectators  who  lined  the  streets,  and  thronged'  each  win- 
dow and  door,  and  balcony,  on  either  side.  Some  gazed  in 
stupid  wonder  ;  the  majority  looked  on  in  silent  admiration. 
A  few  were  seen  to  smile,  as  if  in  mockery  :  while  here  and 
there,  .as  the  child  or  wife  of  some  outgoing  minister  caught 
sight  of  a  husband's  or  a  father's  form  accomplishing  an  act 
which  was  to  leave  his  family  homeless  and  unprovided, 
warm  tear-drops  formed,  which,  as  if  half  ashamed  of  them, 
the  hand  of  faith  was  in  haste  to  wipe  away.  There  were 
Judges  of  the  Court  of  Session  there,  who  had  placed  them- 
selves where  they  could  be  unseen  observers  of  what  took 
place,  who  must  have  felt  perplexed,  it  may  be  saddened,  when 
they  saw  realized  before  their  eyes  the  fruits  of  their  deci- 
sions. Elsewhere  in  the  city.  Lord  Jeffrey  was  sitting  read- 
ing in  his  quiet  room,  when  one  burst  in  upon  him  saying, 
"Well,  what  do  you  think  of  it"? — more  than  four  hundred 
of  them  are  actually  out."  The  book  was  flung  aside,  and 
springingto  his  feet,  Lord  Jeffrey  exclaimed,  "  I'm  proud  of  my 
country  ;  there's  not  another  country  upon  earth  where  such 
a  deed  could  have  been  done." 

The  large  hall  at  Canonmills  prepared  for  the  new  As- 
sembly, and  fitted  up  so  as  to  receive  3000  auditors,  had  been 
filled  in  the  part  allotted  to  the  public  from  an  early  hour  in 
the  morning.  When  the  procession  from  St.  Andrew's  Church 
arrived,  and  the  space  marked  off  for  ministers  and  elders  was 
fully  occupied.  Dr.  Welsh  opened  the  proceedings  with  prayer, 
after  which  he  rose  and  said  :  (w^e  quote  now  from  a  con- 
temporary account) — "  Reverend  fathers  and  brethren,  I  pre- 
sume our  first  duty  in  the  circumstances  in  which  we  are 
placed  unquestionably  is  to  constitute  ourselves  by  the  choice 
of  a  Moderator  ;  and  I  feel  assured  that  the  eyes  of  every 
individual  in  this  Assembly — the  eyes  of  the  whole  Church 
and  country — the  eyes  of  all  Christendom  are  directed  to 
one  individual,  whom  to  name  is  to  pronounce  his  panegyric. 


MT.  63.  THE  DISRUPTION.  337 

In  the  exhausted  state  in  which  ray  duties  have  left  me,  it 
is  scarce  in  my  power  to  say  more,  but  indeed  I  feel  that 
more  would  be  superfluous.  The  extent  of  his  labors  in 
connection  with  our  present  position  would  justly  entitle  Dr. 
Chalmers — (the  mention  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  name  here,  was 
received  with  extraordinary  enthusiasm,  the  whole  of  the 
vast  audience  rising,  cheering  for  some  minutes  with  the  ut- 
most enthusiasm,  and  the  house  presenting  a  perfect  forest  of 
hats  and  handkerchiefs) — would  justly  entitle  that  great  man 
to  hold  the  first  place  in  this  our  meeting.  But  surely  it  is 
a  good  omen,  or  I  should  say  a  token  for  good  from  the  Great 
Disposer  of  all  events,  and  the  alone  Head  of  the  Church 
that  I  can  propose,  to  hold  this  office,  an  individual  who,  by 
the  efforts  of  his  genius  and  his  virtues,  is  destined  to  hold 
so  conspicuous  a  place  in  the  eyes  of  all  posterity.  But  this 
I  feel  is  taking  but  a  low  view  of  the  subject.  His  genius 
has  been  devoted  to  the  service  of  his  Heavenly  Master,  and 
his  is  the  high  honor  promised  to  those,  who,  having  labor- 
ed successfully  in  their  Master's  cause,  and  turned  many  to 
righteousness,  are  to  '  shine  as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever.'  " 
In  taking  the  chair,  Dr.  Chalmers  proposed  that  the  proceed- 
ings should  be  commenced  by  another  act  of  prayer  and 
praise.  The  psalm  selected  to  be  sung  commenced  with  the 
verse — 

"  0  send  thy  light  forth  and  thy  truth ; 
Let  them  be  guides  to  me, 
And  bring  me  to  thine  holy  hill, 
Ev'n  where  thy  dwellings  be." 

As  the  vast  multitude  stood  up  to  sing  these  words,  and  as 
the  swell  of  3000  voices  rose  up  in  melody  to  heaven,  a  sud- 
den burst  of  sunlight  filled  the  building,  and  there  were  some 
who  thought  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  text,  but  six  months  before 
— '«  Unto  the  upright  there  ariseth  light  in  the  darkness." 
The  Assembly  being  constituted  proceeded  to  business  ;  and 
on  the  following  Tuesday  the  act  of  the  Disruption  day  was 
formally  and  legally  completed  by  the  subscription  of  the 

VOL-  IV — ^P 


338  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

"  Act  of  Separation  and  Deed  of  Demission,"  by  which  470 
ministers  did  "separate  from  and  abandon  the  present  sub- 
sisting ecclesiastical  Establishment  in  Scotland,  and  renounce 
all  rights  and  emoluments  pertaining  to  them  in  virtue  there- 
of." A  revenue  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  pounds 
a  year  was  thus  voluntarily  relinquished  for  the  keeping  of 
a  good  conscience  and  on  behalf  of  the  liberties  of  the  Church. 
Five  years  had  passed  since  the  first  decision  on  the  x^uchtorar- 
der  case  and  the  fruit  of  the  conflict  which  then  commenced 
was  this  rending  in  twain  of  the  Scottish  Establishment. 
When  that  conflict  began  there  were  none  on  any  side  who 
contemplated  the  possibility  of  such  an  issue,  and  perhaps 
none  who,  had  it  been  pre-announced  to  them,  would  not 
willingly  have  labored  to  prevent  it.  It  was  an  event  not 
only  beyond  all  human  foresight,  but  done  without  human 
concert,  in  great  measure  against  human  will.  Step  by  step 
the  Church  was  involuntarily  led  on  from  the  lower  and  less 
essential  to  the  larger  and  vital  question  upon  which  her 
very  existence  as  an  Establishment  came  finally  to  be  staked. 
Guided  by  a  M^ay  that  she  knew  not,  her  path  was  hedged 
up  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left  till  no  opening  but  one 
seemed  left  for  preserving  her  principles  and  keeping  her 
honor  pure  and  clean.  It  lightened  amazingly  the  sacrifice 
which  so  many  of  her  ministers  were  called  at  last  to  make, 
that  not  a  shadow  of  uncertainty  hung  over  the  closing  act, 
and  that  amid  all  the  bitterness  of  regret  felt  by  them  in 
separating  from  an  Establishment  which  they  had  so  loved 
and  venerated,  there  mingled  no  feeling  of  hesitation  as  to 
the  propriety  of  their  final  step.  It  was  an  act  forced  on 
them  by  the  moral  necessities  of  their  position,  from  the 
weighty  responsibihties  of  which  they  felt  as  if  providentially 
relieved.  Those  statesmen  who  constrained  them  to  this 
alternative  might  with  more  show  of  reason  have  denied  the 
spiritual  independence  which  they  craved  to  a  Church  which 
shuts  out  the  laity  from  all  part  and  influence  in  her  affairs, 
and  holds  high  notions  of  the  priestly  office  and  the  spiritual 


JET.  C3.  THE  DISRUPTION.  339 

powers  which  accompany  it ;  but  can  they  be  forgiven  for 
denying  this  liberty,  and  that  on  the  ground  of  an  alarm 
about  clerical  domination,  to  a  Church  which  opened  every 
court  to  an  equal,  in  some  instances  to  a  predominating  lay 
influence,  and  which  utterly  repudiated  the  whole  doctrine 
of  priestly  authority  and  power  ?  Can  the  British  Govern- 
ment be  forgiven  for  breaking  up  the  venerable  fabric  of  the 
Scotch  Church  upon  a  plea  so  groundless,  and  for  putting 
so  mournful  a  close  to  that  career  of  Christian  usefulness 
upon  which  that  Church  had  so  vigorously  and  so  hopefully 
embarked  ?  That  an  Estabhshment  manned  principally  by 
such  devoted  ministers  as  were  now  driven  beyond  its  pale, 
and  guided  in  its  advancing  movements  by  such  men  as  Dr. 
Chalmers  and  his  associates,  would  have  proved  an  instrument 
of  greater  power  for  penetrating  and  evangelizing  the  masses 
than  any  which  we  now  see  existing,  we  can  not  doubt ;  and 
as  the  picture  of  what  might  have  been  rises  before  our  eye 
— the  picture  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  aided  by  the  coun- 
tenance and  liberality  of  the  aristocracy — strong  in  the  grow- 
ing attachment  of  the  great  bulk  of  the  middle  classes — 
numbering  among  her  adherents  more  than  two-thirds  of  the 
whole  population  of  the  land — advancing  year  by  year  in 
numbers  and  in  strength — reclaiming  larger  and  larger  por- 
tions of  the  waste  places  of  the  wilderness,  and  turning  them 
into  the  garden  of  the  Lord — we  sigh  in  heart-felt  sorrow 
over  an  event  which  has  put  the  fulfillment  of  such  a  prospect 
forever  out  of  sight.  We  can  not  doubt  that  for  a  calamity 
so  great,  Divine  Providence  has  some  compensating  benefits 
in  store,  which  as  yet  we  do  not  see  ;  and  with  a  hopeful 
faith  we  look  for  it,  that  in  some  great  and  beneficent  issue, 
as  unlike  to  any  which  our  sagacity  or  foresight  can  now 
foreshadow  as  was  the  Disruption  of  1843  to  the  anticipa- 
tions of  1834,  when  the  future  shall  have  unfolded  and  illus- 
trated them,  the  purposes  of  that  wise  and  gracious  Provi- 
dence which  watches  over  the  Church  of  Christ  will  receive 
their  ample  vindication. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CHE  TWO  GENERAL  ASSEMBLIES— PROGRESS  OF  THE 
FREE  CHURCH— CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ITS  FIRST 
GENERAL  ASSEMBLY— LABORS  AND  SUFFERINGS  OF 
THE  SUMMER  OF  1843— DR.  CHALMERS'S  SUSTENTA- 
TION  TOUR. 

The  Church  was  rent  asunder,  and,  for  the  first  time  in 
Scottish  History  two  General  Assemblies  convened  together 
at  Edinburgh.  What  had  divided  them  ?  It  was  no  dif- 
ference as  to  any  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Christianity  ; 
for  the  Creed  and  Confession  of  both  were  identical.  It  was 
no  difference  as  to  Church  order  or  government ;  for  the 
form  of  worship  and  methods  of  rule  and  discipline  were  in 
each  instance  the  same.  Nor  did  the  division  spring  from 
any  peculiarity  of  Presbyterianism  ;  for  had  the  Established 
Church  of  Scotland  been  Episcopalian  or  Independent,  the 
same  kind  of  separation  might  have  taken  place.  The  Dis- 
ruption sprang  solely  and  directly  from  the  terms  and  con- 
ditions of  connection  imposed  by  the  State  upon  the  Church. 
The  State  demanded  an  unlimited  submission  to  certain  sen- 
tences of  the  Civil  Courts,  upon  the  broad  and  general  ground 
that  such  submission  formed  an  essential  element  in  the  bond 
of  union  between  it  and  the  Church.  The  evangelical  cler- 
gymen looked  upon  this  demand  as  repugnant  to  the  whole 
spirit,  and  contrary  to  the  very  letter  of  the  ancient  consti- 
tution of  their  Church — as  one  with  which  it  would  be  both 
unlawful  and  inexpedient  to  comply  ;  and  conscientiously  un- 
able to  render  the  required  submission,  they  withdrew  from 
the  Establishment.  But  what  they  could  not  do — what  they 
rather  chose  to  resign  their  livings  than  be  guilty  of — was 
done  without  scruple  or  difficulty  by  those  whom  they  left 


MT.  63.  THE  TWO  GENERAL  ASSEMBLIES.  34 

behind.  The  Assembly  of  the  Establishment  at  once  de- 
cided that  the  seven  clergymen  of  Stralhbogie  were  in  full 
possession  of  all  the  privileges  of  their  order,  and  without  any 
reversal  by  the  Ecclesiastioal  Court  of  the  sentence  which 
had  been  so  solemnly  pronounced,  those  whom  the  Assembly 
of  1841  had  deposed,  the  Assembly  of  1843  treated  as  if  no 
judgment  against  them  had  overpassed.  The  Veto  Law — 
the  proceedings  of  previous  Assemblies  relative  to  the  settle- 
ments at  Murnoch,  Culsalmond,  and  Lethendy — the  Acts  of 
1833,  1834,  and  1839,  by  which  the  ministers  of  the  Asso- 
ciate Synod  and  of  the  Parliamentary  and  Extension  Churches 
had  been  admitted,  were  all  subjected  to  the  same  simple  and 
summary  treatment.  It  was  not  thought  necessary  to  go 
through  the  form  of  repealing  or  rescinding  them  ;  but  ipso 
facto,  and  because  simply  of  the  edict  of  the  Civil  Courts, 
they  were  counted  as  null  and  void,  and  ordered  to  be  erased 
from  the  records.  Mr.  Clark  had  his  license  restored  to  him, 
and  the  settlements  of  Mr.  Edwards  at  Marnoch  and  of  Mr. 
Middleton  at  Culsalmond,  were  recognized  and  confirmed. 
In  acts  like  these,  so  hurtful  to  the  Church's  honor,  and  so 
prejudicial  to  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  people,  the  evan- 
gelical clergymen  could  take  no  part;  and  having  struggled 
in  vain  within  the  Establishment  to  be  released  from  the 
obligation  to  perform  them — an  obligation  unrighteously,  as 
they  conceived,  and  unconstitutionally  imposed — they  retired, 
to  prosecute  under  all  the  disadvantages  of  a  disestablished 
state,  the  labors  of  a  Christian  Church. 

Their  position,  as  they  assembled  for  the  first  time  in  the 
plain  but  spacious  building  prepared  in  haste  for  their  recep- 
tion, was  Avithout  a  parallel.  Four  hundred  and  seventy 
clergymen  left  without  incomes  for  themselves,  or  homes  for 
their  families,  or  churches  for  their  flocks — meeting  in  a  con- 
dition of  complete  ecclesiastical  organization,  undertaking  all 
the  duties  of  a  most  arduous  ministry  at  home,  as  well  as 
the  support  of  extensive  operations  abroad — and  doing  this 
as  quietly  and  resolutely  as  if  no  shock  or  dislocation  had 


342  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

occurred — no  difficulties  or  uncertainties  lay  before  them. 
The  feeling  which  at  first  and  most  strongly  prevailed  in  that 
singular  assembly,  was  one  of  intense  relief  and  satisfaction. 
So  confidently  and  vividly  was  this  feeling  anticipated  by 
Dr.  Chalmers,  that,  in  penning  beforehand  his  introductory 
address,  he  inserted  the  following  sentences : 

"  Pv-everend  fathers  and  brethren,  it  is  well  that  you  should 
have  been  strengthened  by  your  Master  in  Heaven  to  make 
the  surrender  you  have  done,  of  every  thing  that  is  dear  to 
nature  ;  casting  aside  all  your  earthly  dependence  rather  than 
offend  conscience,  or  incur  the  guilt  of  sinful  compliance  by 
thwarting  your  own  sense  of  duty,  and  running  counter  to 
the  Bible,  our  Great  Church  Directory  and  Statute  Book. 
It  is  well  that  you  have  made,  for  the  present,  a  clean  escape 
from  this  condemnation — and  that  in  the  issue  of  the  contest 
between  a  sacrifice  of  principle  and  a  sacrifice  of  your  worldly 
possessions,  you  have  resolved  upon  the  latter  ;  and  while  to 
the  eye  of  sense  you  are  without  a  provision  and  a  home, 
embarked  upon  a  wide  ocean  of  uncertainty,  save  that  great 
and  generous  certainty  which  is  apprehended  by  the  eye  of 
faith — that  God  reigneth,  and  that  He  will  not  forsake  the 
families  of  the  faithful.  We  read  in  the  Scriptures,  and  I 
believe  it  will  be  often  found  true  in  the  history  and  experi- 
ence of  God's  people,  that  there  is  a  certain  light,  and  joy- 
fulness,  and  elevation  of  spirit,  consequent  upon  a  moral 
achievement  such  as  this.  There  is  a  certain  felt  triumph, 
like  that  of  victory  after  a  conflict,  attending  upon  a  prac- 
tical vindication  which  conscience  has  made  of  her  own 
supremacy,  when  she  has  been  plied  by  many  and  strong 
temptations  to  degrade  or  to  dethrone  her.  Apart  from  Chris- 
tianity altogether,  there  has  been  realized  a  joy  fulness  of 
heart,  a  proud  swelling  of  conscious  integrity,  when  a  con- 
quest has  been  effected  by  the  higher  over  the  inferior  powers 
of  our  nature  ;  and  so  among  Christians  too  there  is  a  legiti- 
mate glorying,  as  when  the  disciples  of  old  gloried  in  the 
midst  of  their  tribulations,  and  when  the  spirit  of  glory  and 


/ET.  63.     DR.  CHALMERS'S  INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS.       343 

of  God  rested  on  them,  they  were  made  partakers  of  the 
Divine  nature,  and  escaped  the  corruption  that  is  in  the 
world  ;  or  as  when  the  Apostle  Paul  rejoiced  in  the  testi- 
mony of  his  conscience.*  But  let  us  not  forget  in  the  midst 
of  this  rejoicing  the  deep  humility  that  pervaded  their  songs 
of  exultation  ;  the  trembling  which  these  holy  men  mixed 
with  their  mirth — trembling  arising  from  a  sense  of  their 
own  weakness  ;  and  then  courage  inspired  by  the  thought 
of  that  aid  and  strength  which  was  to  be  obtained  out  of  His 
fullness,  who  formed  all  their  boasting  and  all  their  defense. 
Never  in  the  history  of  our  Church  were  such  feelings  and 
such  acknowledgments  more  called  for  than  now;  and  in 
the  transition  we  are  making,  it  becomes  us  to  reflect  on  such 
sentiments  as  these  :  *  not  T,  but  the  grace  of  God  in  me  ;' 
and  '  let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth,  take  heed  lest  he 
fall.'" 

In  closing  the  address  from  which  these  sentences  are 
extracted,  and  after  referring  to  the  danger,  not  unlikely  to 
arise  under  the  new  condition  of  things  upon  which  the  Free 
Church  was  acting,  of  exchanging  one  kind  of  subjection  or 
dependence  for  another,  Dr.  Chalmers  added  : 

"  To  be  more  plain,  let  me  be  more  particular.  The  Vol- 
untaries mistake  us,  if  they  conceive  us  to  be  Voluntaries. 
We  hold  by  the  duty  of  Government  to  give  of  their  resources 
and  their  means  for  the  maintenance  of  a  gospel  ministry  in 
the  land  ;  and  we  pray  that  their  eyes  may  be  opened,  so 
that  they  may  learn  how  to  acquit  themselves  as  the  pro- 
tectors of  the  Church,  and  not  as  its  corrupters  or  its  tyrants. 

*  "  You  would  have  been  struck  with  the  contrast  presented  by  our 
outgoing  clergy,  between  their  anxious  and  wo-begone  aspect  before 
they  had  taken  their  de'cision,  and  their  perfect  relief  and  light-heart- 
ed ness  after  it.  Never  was  there  a  happier  Assembly,  with  a  happier 
collection  of  faces,  than  in  our  Free  Cliurch — with  consciences  dis- 
burdened, and  casting  themselves  without  care,  and  with  all  the  con- 
fidence of  children,  on  the  providence  of  that  God  who  never  forsakes 
the  families  of  the  faithful." — Letter  from  Dr.  Chalmers  to  his  Sister, 
Mrs.  Morton,  dated  16th  Jnne,  1843. 


344  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

We  pray  that  the  sin  of  Uzziah,  into  which  they  have  fallen, 
may  be  forgiven  them,  and  that  those  days  of  light  and 
blessedness  may  speedily  arrive,  when  '  kings  shall  be  the 
nursing-fathers,  and  queens  the  nursing  mothers'  of  our  Zion. 
In  a  word,  we  hold  that  every  part  and  every  function  of  a 
commonwealth  should  be  leavened  with  Christianity,  and 
that  every  functionary,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  should, 
in  their  respective  spheres,  do  all  that  in  them  lies  to  coun- 
tenance and  uphold  it.  That  is  to  say,  though  we  quit  the 
Establishment,  we  go  out  on  the  Establishment  principle; 
we  quit  a  vitiated  Establishment,  but  would  rejoice  in  re- 
turning to  a  pure  one.  To  express  it  otherwise — we  are  the 
advocates  for  a  national  recognition  and  national  support  of 
religion — and  we  are  not  Voluntaries. 

"  Again,  if  we  thus  openly  proclaim  our  differences  with 
men  who,  under  the  guise  of  principle — and  of  this  principle 
we  question  not  the  honesty — refuse  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Church  to  have  any  participation  with  the  Government,  still 
more  resolutely  do  we  disclaim  all  fellowship  with  men  who, 
under  the  guise  of  direct  and  declared  opposition,  lift  a 
menacing  front  against  '  the  powers  that  be  ;'  or,  disdaining 
government,  and  impatient  of  restraint,  manifest  a  spirit  of 
contention  and  defiance.  ^  ^  *  Ji  on  the  flag  of  your  truly 
free  and  constitutional  Church  you  are  willing  to  inscribe 
that  you  are  no  Voluntaries,  then  still  more  there  will  be  an 
utter  absence  of  sympathy  on  your  part  with  the  demagogue 
and  agitator  of  the  day — so  that  in  golden  characters  may  be 
seen  and  read  of  all  men  this  other  inscription,  that  you  are 
no  anarchists." 

His  duties  as  Moderator  interfered  with  Dr.  Chalmers's 
taking  any  large  share  In  the  public  business  of  the  Assembly. 
As  Convener,  however,  of  the  Financial  Committee,  he  gave 
in  the  report  relative  to  the  Sustentation  Fund.  Had  no 
such  central  fund  for  upholding  the  ministries  of  all  the  out- 
going clergymen  in  their  former  spheres  of  labor  been  devised, 
had  each  minister  been  thrown  upon  the  support  of  such  of 


^T.  63.  THE  SUSTENTATION  FUND.  345 

his  parishoners  as  adhered  to  him,  in  more  than  two  hundred 
instances  that  support  had  been  so  utterly  insufficient  that 
their  positions  must  have  been  abandoned,  and  the  Free 
Church  narrowed  by  more  than  a  third  part  in  her  original 
dimensions.  It  was,  moreover,  the  existence  oi"  such  a  fund 
which  alone  enabled  the  Free  Church  to  make  and  keep 
her  promise  of  supplying  with  Christian  ordinances  all  who 
should  adhere  to  her  communion  :  and  looking  to  the  large 
increase  in  her  ministry  and  membership  w4iich  consequently 
occurred,  we  may  confidently  affirm  that  for  more  than  one 
half  of  her  existing  numerical  strength  the  Free  Church 
stands  indebted  to  that  single  device  of  Dr.  Chalmers.  His 
report  as  to  the  progress  made  in  its  establishment  was  in 
the  highest  degree  encouraging.  Six  hundred  and  eighty- 
seven  associations  had  been  organized.  Two  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  of  them  were  in  full  operation,  and  had  already 
transmitted  to  the  general  treasury  upward  of  ,£17,000. 
The  average  yielded  by  each  of  these  associations  was  £73 
per  annum — a  sum  much  lower  than  what  might  confidently 
be  calculated  on  when  the  impulse  of  the  Disruption  began 
to  operate  ;  but,  even  as  it  then  stood,  if  the  same  rate  of 
liberality  were  extended  over  all  the  existing  associations, 
and  sustained  throughout  the  year,  there  was  the  promise  of 
an  annual  revenue  of  £74,080.  "  Had  the  goodly  result," 
said  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  giving  in  this  Report,  "  which  1  have 
to-day  presented  to  you,  been  a  few  months  ago  spoken  of  as 
either  possible  or  probable,  the  anticipation  would  have  been 
regarded,  as  in  fact  my  expressed  conviction  at  that  time 
generally  was  regarded,  as  a  vision  of  Utopia.  We  know 
not  what  the  feelings  of  such  are  when,  instead  of  presenting 
the  matter  to  the  eyes  of  their  understanding,  we  now  place  it 
before  the  eye  of  their  senses.  Sure  we  are,  it  was  far  easier 
practically  to  do  the  thing,  than  to  convince  the  people  that 
thing  was  practicable.  The  difficulty  lay  not  in  the  doing  the 
of  the  work  when  begun,  but  wholly  in  getting  it  begun — not 
in  the  execution  of  the  process  after  its  commencement,  but 


346  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843 

in  overcoming  the  incredulity  which  stood  as  a  barrier  in  the 
way  of  its  commencement.  *  =^  *  I  doubt  not,  there  are  a 
good  many  here  who  heard  me  predict  such  a  result  as  that 
which  I  have  to-day  laid  before  you  ;  and  I  trust  you  will 
forgive  me  for  stating,  though  I  am  not  a  professor  of  phys- 
iognomy, that  when  I  chanced  to  lift  my  eyes  oft'  the  paper 
to  the  countenances  of  those  who  were  before  me,  I  observed 
in  them  a  good-natured  leer  of  incredulity,  mixed  up,  no 
doubt,  with  a  benignant  complacency,  which  they  cast  on 
the  statements  and  high-colored  representations  of  a  very 
sanguine  Utopian.  In  order  to  overcome  this  incredulity  in 
ray  own  little  sphere,  and  in  a  parish  where  eight-ninths  of 
the  aristocracy  of  the  soil  are  against  us,  I  did  begin  a  little 
Association — I  mean  the  parish  of  Morningside.  But  we 
remained  for  six  whole  weeks  in  a  state  of  single  blessedntBSs 
— we  had  not  a  single  companion,  but  stood  as  a  spectacle 
to  be  gazed  at  with  a  sort  of  gaping  wonder,  till  we  actually 
felt  our  situation  painful,  felt  as  if  we  stood  on  a  pillory  ; 
but  now  that  we  have  been  followed  by  no  less  than  687 
Associations,  our  singularity,  we  begin  to  fee],  sits  rather 
gracefully  upon  us.  At  the  hazard  of  being  regarded  as  a 
Utopian  this  second  time,  and  at  this  new  stage  of  our 
advance,  I  will  make  as  confident  an  avowal  now  as  I  made 
then,  that  if  we  only  make  a  proper  use  of  the  summer  that 
is  before  us,  in  stirring  up,  I  do  not  say  the  people  of  Scotland, 
but  that  portion  of  them  who  are  the  friends  of  our  Protest- 
ing Church — if  we  do  what  we  might,  and  what  we  ought, 
we  will  not  only  be  able  to  repair  the  whole  Disruption,  but 
will  get  landed  in  the  great  and  glorious  work  of  Church 
Extension.  For  you  will  recollect,  that  though  the  applica- 
tion of  the  first  portion  of  the  funds  goes  toward,  I  will  not 
say  the  support  of  the  ejected  ministers,  but  toward  the 
upholding  of  the  continuance  of  their  services ;  yet  after  that 
is  secured,  and  after  the  maximum  has  been  attained,  the 
over  and  above  sums  contributed  will  go,  not  to  the  augment- 
ation of  ministerial  income,  but  to  the  augmentation  of  min- 


^T.  b:j.  THE  BUILDING  FUND.  347 

isterial  services — not  to  the  increase  of  the  salaries  of  the 
ministers,  but  to  the  increase  of  their  numbers ;  and  we  shall 
not  stop  short,  I  trust,  in  our  great  and  glorious  enterprise, 
till,  in  the  language  you  have  already  heard  '  the  light  of 
the  gospel  be  carried  to  every  cottage-door  within  the  limits 
of  the  Scottish  territory.'  This  will  open  a  boundless  field 
for  the  liberality  of  our  Christian  brethren — a  bright  and 
beautiful  ulterior,  to  which  every  eye  should  be  directed, 
that  each  may  have  in  full  view  the  great  and  glorious 
achievement  of  a  Church  commensurate  with  the  land  in 
which  we  dwell,  and  every  heart  be  elevated  by  the  magnifi- 
cent aim  to  cover  with  the  requisite  number  of  churches,  and, 
with  God's  blessing  on  the  means,  Christianly  to  educate, 
and,  in  return  for  our  performance  and  prayers,  to  Christian- 
ize the  whole  of  Scotland." 

The  report  relative  to  the  Building  Fund,  also  given  in  by 
Dr.  Chalmers,  was  not  less  encouraging.  In  one  week,  by 
means  of  the  local  associations,  £16,578  had  been  collected 
in  smaller  sums,  which,  added  to  the  more  munificent  dona- 
tions made  during  the  few  months  preceding  the  Disruption, 
presented  no  less  a  sum  than  £104,776  already  available 
for  the  erection  of  churches.  And  the  day  of  the  Disruption 
sprang  a  new  mine  of  charity  in  the  hearts  of  thousands. 
Their  ministers  having  led  the  way,  and  given  to  the  world 
a  clear  and  convincing  testimony  to  the  reality  and  power 
of  religious  principle,  in  the  pecuniary  sacrifices  which  they 
made,  many  a  noble-hearted  layman  was  in  haste  to  follow 
and  to  rival  their  example.  First  among  those  Christians 
and  generous  men  who  have  furnished  a  new  standard  of  in- 
dividual liberality,  stood  Mr.  William  Campbell  of  Glasgow, 
whose  benefactions  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  during  the 
progress  of  her  extensions  had  already  amounted  to  about 
£15,000,  began  a  new  career  of  a  still  wider  liberality,  by 
a  donation  of  £2000  to  the  Building  Fund  of  the  Free 
Church.  The  Marchioness  of  Breadalbane,  Mr.  Ewing  of 
Levenside,  Mr.  Nisbet  of  London,  and  Mr.  Brown  Douglas 


348  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

of  Edinburgh,  were  mentioned  also  by  Dr.  Chalnners  as  the 
donors  of  sums  equally  miniifieent ;  and  we  regret  only  that 
the  delicacy  of  a  genuine  humility  forbids  our  naming  one, 
the  overflowings  of  whose  altogether  princely  generosity  cross- 
ed the  Atlantic,  and  of  which  Dr.  Chalmers  felt  himself  to 
be  honored  in  being  chosen  as  the  channel.  These  were  the 
offerings  of  the  rich,  but  greater  and  more  precious  in  the 
eyes  of  Him  who  still  sits  over  against  the  Church's  Treasury, 
were  the  offerings — approaching  far  more  to  the  character 
of  pecuniary  sacrifices — made  at  this  time  by  thousands  in 
the  humblest  walks  of  life.  "  The  liberalities,"  said  Dr. 
Chalmers,  "  which  have  been  poured  forth  on  our  great  en- 
terprise even  by  the  humblest  of  our  artisans  and  laborers, 
and  the  grateful  responses  which  these  have  called  back  again 

the  words  of  kindness  and  of  encouragement  which  have 

been  sent  from  all  places  of  the  land  to  bear  us  up  on  the 
field  of  conflict,  and  our  thankful  sense  of  the  friendship 
which  prompted  them — the  amalgamating  power  of  a  com- 
mon object  and  a  common  feeling,  to  cement  and  knit  to- 
gether the  hearts  of  men — the  very  emulation  to  love  and  to 
good  works  which  has  given  birth  to  so  many  associations, 
each  striving  to  outrun  the  other  in  their  generous  contribu- 
tions for  the  support  of  what  is  deemed  by  all  to  be  a  noble 
cause — even  the  working  of  these  associations,  in  which  the 
rich  and  the  poor  are  often  made  to  change  places,  the 
former  visiting  the  houses  of  the  latter,  and  receiving  the 
offerings  of  Christian  benevolence  at  their  hands — the  mul- 
tiplied occasions  of  intercourse  thus  opened  up  between  those 
parties  in  the  commonwealth  which  before  stood  at  the 
greatest  distance,  and  were  wont  to  look  with  the  indiffer- 
ence, if  not  the  coldness,  of  aliens  to  each  other — these  are 
so  many  sweetening  and  exalting  influences,  which  servo  to 
foster  the  sympathy  of  a  felt  brotherhood  among  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  our  countrymen,  and  will  mightily 
tend,  we  are  persuaded,  to  elevate  and  humanize  the  society 
of  Scotland." 


^T.  63.  GENEKAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  THE  FREE  CHURCH.      349 


Two  things  especially  characterized  the  first  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Free  Church — the  marvelous  popular  enthu- 
siasm which  it  kindled  without,  and  the  equally  marvelous 
and  unbroken  harmony  which  prevailed  within.  The  sittings 
were  continued  from  Thursday  the  1 8th  till  Tuesday  the 
30th  May,  and  yet  from  the  beginning  to  the  close  of  each 
daily  sitting,  the  Hall  at  Canonmills  saw  a  compact  crowd 
of  3000  auditors  listening  with  intense  attention  to  every 
part  of  the  proceedings,  and  breaking  out,  whenever  the  oc- 
casion permitted,  or  at  all  encouraged  it,  into  extraordinary 
demonstrations  of  sympathy  and  approval.  During  the  two 
Sabbaths  which  intervened,  religious  service  was  conducted 
in  the  Hall  of  the  Assembly.  It  is  to  give  no  conception  of 
the  scenes  which  there  occurred  to  say,  that  the  mass  of 
human  beings,  forced  by  the  outward  pressure  into  the  build- 
ing, was  so  compact  that,  unable  to  penetrate,  the  preacher 
had  to  be  carried  over  their  heads.  Such  multitudes  assem- 
bled that  five  separate  congregations  were  formed  without 
the  walls,  and  though  the  rain  began  to  fall,  remained 
hanging  upon  the  lips  of  the  speakers.  During  the  course 
of  the  Assembly  many  plans  had  to  be  matured  and  resolu- 
tions taken,  which,  had  matters  been  thrown  loosely  in  a 
crude  and  undigested  form  before  the  House,  might  have 
created  difference  or  discord.  It  was  with  a  clear  foresight 
of  this  danger  that  Dr.  Chalmers  was  so  urgent  in  carrying 
the  work  of  preparation  beforehand  to  the  utmost  possible 
extent.  There  was  no  measure  submitted  to  the  Assembly 
which  had  not  been  the  subject  of  frequent  and  anxious 
deliberations  with  one  or  other  of  the  committees  in  Edin- 
burgh ;  and,  even  after  the  Assembly  met,  no  measure  of 
any  importance  was  brought  forward  for  public  discussion  or 
approval  till  after  much  private  consultation  regarding  it, 
In  these  private  conferences  every  one  who  had  any  counsel 
to  tender  was  invited  to  bring  it  forward,  and  each  seemed 
ready  to  yield  his  own  judgment  to  the  collective  wisdom  of 
his  associates.      A  reigning  spirit  of  brotherly  love  and  of 


350  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  lfJ4S. 


mutual  confidence  guided  all  their  deliberations,  and  such  a 
rare  and  unbroken  harmony  of  judgment  was  effected  that 
not  once  had  a  vote  to  be  taken,  nor  with  any  one  of  this 
Assembly's  decisions  was  dissatisfaction  afterward  expressed. 
The  excitements  of  debate  were  exchanged  for  the  excite- 
ments of  an  ardent,  hopeful  zeal — quick  to  devise  and  ready 
to  execute.  No  sound  of  strife  was  heard,  no  shadow  of 
jealousy  appeared — all  were  of  one  heart  and  of  one  mind, 
stimulating  and  strengthening  each  other  for  the  great  work 
to  which  they  stood  committed. 

That  work  was  sufficiently  arduous.  First,  the  pains  of 
separation  from  old  homes,  and  old  churches,  and  old  friends, 
had  to  be  suffered,  and  then  the  toils  of  an  overburdened 
ministry  had  to  be  undergone,  and  the  front  of  a  most  de- 
termined opposition  to  be  faced.  They  knew  nothing  of  the 
Disruption  as  a  time  of  trial  and  of  sacrifice  who  knew  it 
only  in  our  great  towns,  where  amid  much  to  do  and  to 
suffer  there  was  much  also  to  animate  and  encourage.  It 
was  in  the  country  manse — it  was  in  the  sequestered  rural 
parish  that  the  burden  of  this  sore  calamity  was  most 
severely  felt.  "  Just  conceive,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  the 
Assembly,  entering  most  feelingly  into  their  coming  trials, 
"  these  clergymen  returning  to  their  homes,  finding  their 
houses  in  process  of  being  dismantled  and  their  parishioners 
saddened  by  the  prospect  of  an  approaching  separation.  We 
stay  here  in  our  hilarity  in  the  presence  of  each  other,  but 
these  gentlemen  go  to  what  were  once  their  welcome  and 
comfortable  homes,  and  what  is  the  spectacle  that  meets 
them  on  their  return  ?  I  can  not  venture  on  the  description. 
Going,  they  and  their  families,  they  know  not  whither — re- 
signing all.  those  places  to  which  they  are  attached  by  so 
many  fond  and  intense  local  affections — their  garden-walks 

where  they  freely  enjoyed  the  hours  of  their  relaxation 

the  peaceful  study  where  the  man  of  learning  enjoyed  many 
a  raptured  hour  of  converse  with  his  books,  or  which  the 
man  of  piety  converted  into  a  sanctuary,  and  held  intercourse 


^T.  63.  THE  LEAVING  OF  THE  MANSE.  351 

there  with  his  God — all  these  to  be  resigned  and  given  up." 
One  venerable  minister  had  to  send  his  wife  and  children 
away  to  a  distance  of  seventy  rniles — not  a  house  or  hut 
nearer  being  open  for  their  accommodation — and  he  had 
himself  to  take  a  room  in  the  only  inn  which  the  district 
supplied.  Another  was  asked  by  his  widowed  daughter  to 
share  a  cottage,  within  his  parish,  in  which  she  lived,  but 
the  noble  proprietor  interfered.  She  was  warned  that  if  she 
harbored  her  own  parent  in  her  house  she  would  forfeit  her 
right  to  her  dwelling,  as  it  was  not  desired  that  any  house 
on  this  estate  should  be  a  "lodging-place  for  dissenters."  A 
third,  driven  from  one  of  the  loveliest  homes,  compelled  to 
study  in  a  wretched  garret,  and  to  sleep  often  with  nothing 
between  him  and  the  open  heavens  but  the  cold  slate,  covered 
with  hoar-frost — his  very  breath  frozen  upon  the  bed  clothes 

sunk  into   the   grave.      From  the  manse  of  Tongue  the 

patriarchal  clergyman  and  his  son,  who  was  his  assistant  and 
successor,  separating  themselves  from  their  families,  retired 
to  a  very  humble  abode.  The  exposure  and  privation  were 
too  much  for  them  ;  they  both  caught  fever,  and  both  died. 
«'  T  shall  never  forget,  to  my  dying  day,"  said  Dr.  Guthrie,* 
"  the  scene  which  I  witnessed  at  the  manse  of  Tongue,  or 

rather I  forget  myself — in  a  mean,  at  least  humble  cottage 

to  which  that  father  and  son  had  retired — parting  with  their 
family  rather  than  part  with  their  flock.  I  was  never  so 
unmanned  by  any  sight  I  ever  saw — if  I  may  call  it  bemg 
unmanned,  for  T  am  not  ashamed  of  being  afiected  by  such 
a  sight.  I  shall  not  venture  to  describe  what  I  saw,  1 
shall  only  say,  in  the  words  of  Scripture,  '  they  were  lovely 
and  pleasant  in  their  lives,  and  in  their  death  they  were  not 
divided.'  I  rise  to  bear  my  humble  testimony  to  the  worth 
of  these  men — I  should  rather  say,  the  worth  of  these 
martyrs  for  those  great  principles  for  which  we  abandoned 
our  earthly  all.  They  lay  on  their  dying  beds  in  peace. 
*  In  a  speech  before  the  General  Assembly  at  Inverness  in  August, 
1845. 


352  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 


Never  shall  I  forget  the  sight  of  that  venerable  old  man — a 
man  who  would  have  adorned  any  Church — who  would 
have  adorned  any  society — never  shall  I  forget  seeing  him 
in  his  mean  cottage — nature  exhausted — buried  in  the  sleep 
which  he  had  not  tasted  during  the  livelong  night,  his  ven- 
erable locks  streaming  over  the  chair  where  he  was  sitting 
asleep.  I  went  up  to  him  and  intended  to  awake  him,  but 
I  thought  it  cruelty  to  do  so.  I  passed  by  him  again  and 
ajrain  in  the  room,  and  still  he  slept  on  ;  and  after  seeing 
his  son  lying,  in  an  adjoining  closet,  on  a  fever  bed — a  son 
that  had  never  closed  his  eyes  all  the  night  long  either,  for 
his  father's  groans  were  like  daggers  to  his  heart,  I  left  the 
house  ;  and  the  last  words  I  heard  that  son  say  on  the 
earth  were,  '  Mr.  Guthrie,  this  is  hard  enough  ;  but  I  thank 
God  I  don't  lie  here  a  renegade.  My  father's  conscience 
and  mine  are  at  peace.'  Yes,  they  are  both  at  peace  now. 
They  have  both  gone  to  the  place  where  '  the  wicked  cease 
from  troubling,  and  the  weary  arc  at  rest.'"  Such  are 
single  leaves  of  a  record,  which,  if  ever  the  history  of  the  first 
plantation  of  the  Free  Church  be  fully  written,  will  be  a  book 
of  many  and  strangely-colored  pages. 

But  toil  came  as  v/ell  as  trouble.  To  meet  the  wants  of 
the  adhering  population  upward  of  600  congregations  had 
to  be  regularly  supplied  with  all  the  means  of  grace,  and  as 
many  churches  had  to  be  erected.  Never  in  the  history  of 
the  Christian  Church  were  so  many  sermons  delivered,  so 
many  prayer  meetings  held,  so  many  addresses  delivered,  by 
the  same  number  of  clergymen,  within  the  same  period  of 
time,  as  by  the  outgoing  ministers  during  the  twelve  months 
which  elapsed  from  the  day  of  the  Disruption  till  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  of  1844  ;  and  never  over  the  same  surface  of 
country,  or  within  so  short  a  time,  were  so  many  churches 
built.  In  towns  the  kindness  of  their  dissenting  brethren 
afforded  many  facilities  for  ministers  meeting  with  their 
people  on  the  Sabbath  days.  In  the  country  it  was  differ- 
ent.     Here  and  there  the  hand  of  tyranny  was  stretched  out, 


^T.  63.  THE  SUMMER  OF  1843.  353 

and  from  the  church  and  church-yard — from  the  bare  hill- 
side and  from  the  public  highways,  on  all  of  which  they 
sought  to  assemble  and  to  worship  God — ministers  and 
people,  were  driven,  till  they  took  their  station  within  high- 
water  mark  on  the  lone  sea-beach,  their  feet  upon  the  damp 
and  tangled  sea- weed — the  roll  of  those  breakers  whose  spray 
the  breeze  drove  over  them  keeping  time  to  their  solemn 
psalmody.  It  was  a  summer  in  which  there  was  scarcely  a 
rainy  or  inclement  Sabbath,  and  very  generally  in  the  rural 
districts,  even  where  no  opposition  of  any  kind  was  encoun- 
tered, there  was  preaching  in  the  open  air.  When  this  was 
impracticable  or  inexpedient,  strange  shifts  and  expedients 
were  frequently  employed.  At  Morningside,  Dr.  Chalmers 
opened  his  own  dwelling-house,  and  converted  it  into  a 
church  ;  and  perhaps  he  never  occupied  a  more  picturesque 
position  than  when,  planted  midway  up  the  staircase,  he 
preached  to  a  disjointed  congregation  scattered  into  different 
rooms,  all  of  whom  could  hear,  but  not  half  of  whom  could 
see  the  clergyman.  In  addition  to  the  increased  amount  of 
purely  pastoral  labor  which  devolved  upon  them,  the  leading 
ministers  of  the  Free  Church  had  large  draughts  made  upon 
their  time  and  strength  for  public  services.  The  lively  in- 
terest which  the  Disruption  had  created  in  other  countries, 
suggested  the  idea  of  dispatching  numerous  deputations  to 
explain  the  principles  and  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  Free 
Church.  Familiar  as  the  Presbyterians  of  Ulster  were  with 
the  great  principles  involved  in  the  controversy,  and  looking 
with  the  strong  attachment  of  children  to  the  parent  Church 
in  Scotland,  they  needed  less  either  to  be  informed  or  to  be 
stimulated,  and,  as  became  them,  they  were  the  foremost, 
both  by  word  and  deed,  in  expressions  of  attachment.  In 
England,  the  deputations  from  the  North  were  received  every 
where  with  extraordinary  demonstrations  of  affection  and 
good-will.  Public  meetings  were  held  in  the  metropolis  and 
most  of  the  principal  towns.  In  Manchester,  thirty-five 
pulpits  were  opened  upon  one  Sunday,  that  sermons  might 


354  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

be  preached  and  collections  taken.  In  Birmingham  fifteen 
pulpits  were  placed,  in  like  manner,  upon  the  same  Sab- 
bath, at  the  disposal  of  the  friends  of  the  Free  Church. 
London  was  not  so  well  organized,  but  it  exhibited  a  no  less 
generous  spirit.  Over  all  wide  England,  fervent  and  sub- 
stantial expressions  of  desire  were  given  to  aid  the  men  M'ho, 
after  making  so  great  a  personal  sacrifice,  were  attempting 
the  task  of  building  up  a  national  institute  in  a  year.  The 
event  which  had  occurred  in  Scotland  had  power  also  to  stir 
profoundly  and  extensively  the  sympathies  of  the  American 
churches,  and  a  deputation,  headed  by  Dr.  Cunningham, 
crossed  the  Atlantic.  In  one  or  other  of  these  pubhc  serv- 
ices Dr.  Chalmers  was  again  and  again  solicited  to  engage. 
It  was  pressed  upon  him  in  particular  and  in  the  strongest 
terms,  that  he  should  deliver  a  few  lectures  in  London,  ex- 
planatory of  the  principles  involved  in  the  Disruption  ;  but 
he  steadily  resisted  all  the  urgency  by  which  he  was  beset 
He  had  the  profoundest  conviction  that  all  which  Ireland, 
England,  or  America  would  or  could  do  for  her,  was  utterly 
insignificant  as  compared  with  what  Scotland  could  and 
ought  to  do  for  herself.*  Those  bursts  of  generous  feeling, 
which  it  was  so  pleasant  to  witness  or  excite,  would  in  a 
year  or  two  subside,  and  the  contributions  begotten  by  them 
would  die  away  in  like  manner.  To  meet  all  the  tempo- 
rary necessities  of  her  position,  it  was  proper  and  needful  that 

*  •^Edinburgh.  Nov.  6,  1843. — My  dear  Sir — Your  suggestions 
are  admirable,  and  will  be  handed  to  the  proper  quarters.  Yet,  how- 
ever valuable  our  labors  in  England,  a  tenfold  greater  good  would  ac- 
crue to  the  Free  Church  were  each  man  but  to  cultivate  his  own  dis- 
trict, and  make  the  most  of  it.  Do  tell  Mr.  Mackinlay  that  I  would 
have  more  value  for  a  vigorous  and  well-conducted  system  in  his  local- 
ity, and  for  the  imitation  of  it  in  the  other  localities  of  our  own  land, 
than  for  all  that  either  England  or  Ireland  can  do  in  our  favor.  I  was 
delighted  with  m}'  visit  to  you,  nor  have  I  spent  more  congenial  or 
ha}>pier  hours  for  a  long  time,  than  within  the  limits  of  j'our  domain,  and 
the  Necroplis  together. — Ever  believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  most 
cordially,  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"Hueh  Tennant,  Esq." 


JF.T.  G3.  THE  SUSTENTATION  TOUR.  355 

the  Free  Church  should  avail  herself  of  them  to  the  utter- 
most. They  served,  besides,  a  higher  and  more  enduring 
object — that  of  binding  together  the  churches  in  the  bonds 
of  a  brotherly  unity,  and  upon  that  ground  especially  were 
they  to  be  cherished.  But  ere  very  long  the  Church  w^ould 
be  thrown  back  upon  her  own  internal  resources — the  foreign 
springs  would  fail,  and  it  would  be  upon  the  home  fountain 
that  all  would  finally  depend.  It  was  to  the  striking  out 
of  that  fountain,  to  the  rendering  it  as  deep  and  productive 
as  possible,  that  Dr.  Chalmers's  whole  and  undivided  strength 
was  given.  When  told  with  rapture  of  this  and  that  other 
donation  from  this  and  that  other  remote  district  of  England 
or  America,  he  playfully  would  say,  "  The  eyes  of  a  fool  are 
in  the  ends  of  the  earth."  In  August  and  September  he 
made  a  Sustentation  tour,  taking  in  Perth,  Dunkeld,  Aber- 
deen, Arbroath,  Dundee,  and  St.  Andrews.  What  he  sought 
for  in  each  place  he  visited  was,  a  meeting  with  ten,  or 
twenty,  or  thirty  of  those  who  would  undertake  the  actual 
work  of  making  the  regular  rounds  through  the  families  of 
their  districts,  that  he  might  impress  them  with  the  magni- 
tude of  their  office,  and  animate  them  to  punctuality  and 
zeal  in  the  discharge  of  its  duties.  In  one  or  two  instances 
he  had  large  audiences  to  address.  At  Aberdeen  1400  office- 
bearers of  the  Church  assembled  to  receive  his  counsels. 
But  he  eschewed  the  larger  assembly,  and  courted  the  small 
and  confidential  conference.* 

*  "  I  assure  you,"  said  he  to  the  General  Assembly  convened  in 
Glasgow,  "  that  if  I  can  get  twenty  gentlemen  persuaded  to  do  what 
1  recommend,  I  should  consider  it  an  ample  reward  for  all  the  fatigue 
endured  by  the  Assembly.  The  truth  is,  I  have  infinitely  greater  taste 
for  meetings  which  are  followed  by  common  sense  practical  workings, 
than  I  have  for  meetings  which  are  not  so  followed  up.  I  can  not  ex- 
press the  futility  of  these  general  meetings,  which  are  tenfold  less  use- 
ful to  the  community,  and  tenfold  more  exhausting  to  the  strength, 
than  those  private  confidential  meetings  which  are  attended  by  none 
but  those  who  are  willing  to  give  their  time  and  their  substance  to  the 
labor.  I  can  not  express  the  distaste  I  feel  for  the  meetings  which 
are  not  so  followed  up.     I  care  nothing  for  the  bold  oratory,  for  the 


35fi  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMKRS.  1843. 

There  were  three  visits  in  the  course  of  this  tour  wliich  he 
especially  relished — the  three  days  spent  with  Captain  Bur- 
nett of  Monboddo,  the  week  with  Mr.  Thomson  of  Banchory, 
and  the  day  at  the  manse  of  Carnoustie.  In  his  Journal 
letters,  under  the  date  of  Monday,  the  4th  September,  he 
says — "  Captain  and  Mrs.  Burnett  had  the  great  kindness 
to  accompany  me  on  my  departure  as  far  as  Stonehaven,  on 
my  way  to  Banchory.  I  took  leave  with  much  feeling  of 
the  whole  family,  children  and  all.  I  have  been  treated 
with  the  greatest  cordiality,  and  I  owe  nothing  to  the  Cap- 
tain but  the  utmost  gratitude  and  respect.  What  a  differ- 
ence it  would  make  in  Scotland,  if  we  had  one  such  as  he 
within  every  ten  miles  of  each  other."  On  Sabbath,  the 
10th  of  September,  it  was  arranged  that  Dr.  Chalmers  should 
preach  at  Banchory,  a  short  distance  from  Aberdeen.  The 
Free  Church  congregation  was  then  worshiping  in  a  tent, 
which  was  enlarged  for  the  occasion,  so  that  it  might  accom- 
modate from  1600  to  2000  persons.  Two  hours  before  the 
time  for  the  commencement  of  the  service,  a  message  was  sent 
to  Mr.  Thomson  that  the  tent  was  already  crowded.  On  going 
to  see  the  state  of  matters,  he  found  it  not  only  crammed  to 
suffocation,  but  as  many  assembled  round  it  as  would  have 
filled  it  two  or  three  times  over,  while  crowds  were  hastening 
to  the  spot  along  the  various  roads,  on  foot  and  in  vehicles 
of  every  description.  It  was  obvious  that  there  was  no  re- 
bursts  of  enthusiasm,  for  the  electric  flashes  of  the  speeches,  foilowed 
by  the  thnnder-claps  of  a[)plause  from  the  thousands  of  assembled 
hearers,  for  the  flights  of  eloquence  in  the  orators,  and  the  peals  of 
admiration  from  the  auditors — for  all  this,  if  its  energy  is  to  be  ex- 
pended like  the  winter  torrent,  will  leave  few  men  the  readier  to  put 
forth  their  hand  to  the  required  work.  All  this  may  be  very  splendid  ; 
but  it  is  nothing,  or  worse  than  nothing,  reminding  us  of  the  oratorio, 
where  the  sacred  music  has  awakened  a  thrilling  ecstasy  in  the  minds 
of  multitudes  who  have  none  of  the  habits  or  characteristics  of  piety  ; 
or  of  the  theatrical  acclamations  with  which  virtuous  speeches  or  sen- 
timents are  hailed  b}'  hundreds  who  have  no  patience  for  its  toil,  no 
relish  for  its  homely  services.  I  want  not  the  excitement  of  emotion, 
but  the  sturdiness  and  endurance  of  good  woiking  principles."' 


.1-:?.  63.  THR  SKR.MON  AT  BANCHORY.  357 

source  but  to  ask  Dr.  Chalmers  to  preach  in  the  oi)cu  air. 
lie  had  retired  to  the  hbrary,  and  requested  to  be  left  alone 
for  an  hour,  but  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  intrude  upon 
him.  "  I  went  to  him,"  says  Mr.  Thomson,  "  and  said  to 
him,  '  We  find  that  the  tent  will  not  nearly  hold  all  the 
people  who  have  assembled  ;  would  you  dislike  preaching:  in 
the  open  air  V  He  looked  up,  and  with  the  most  perfect 
simplicity,  exclaimed,  '  What  has  brought  all  the  people 
here  V  "  He  at  once  agreed,  however,  to  the  request  ;  and 
various  places  being  proposed  and  shewn  to  him,  he  prompt-* 
ly  selected  the  principal  door-way  of  the  house,  where  a  tem- 
porary pulpit  of  tables,  covered  with  a  large  green  cloth, 
was  immediately  erected.  The  situation  was  favorable  ;  a 
level  lawn  of  some  extent  stretching  out  before  him,  bound- 
ed on  each  side  by  a  sloping  bank  covered  with  shrubbery 
and  wood.  The  narrative  of  the  preaching  must  be  given 
in  Dr.  Chalmers's  own  words  : — 

"  I  had  expressed  my  preference  for  a  rural  Sabbath.  But 
little  thought  I,  that,  notwithstanding  the  day  and  the  hour, 
and  even  the  rain  of  this  day,  there  were  to  assemble  six  or 
seven  thousand,  some  say  ten  thousand  people.  And  so  the 
pulpit  had  to  be  carried  half-a-mile  from  the  Free  Church 
tent  to  the  front-door  of  Banchory  House,  where  I  could 
preach  under  cover,  with  a  lobby  full  of  grandees  behind 
me,  and  such  a  multitude  before  me,  as  presented  what  the 
Opium-Eater  calls  an  ocean  of  human  faces.  The  people 
occupied  all  the  gravel  before  the  house,  and  all  the  grassy 
lawn,  wet  as  it  was,  to  the  trees,  whose  foliage  gave  back 
the  sound,  so  that  the  echo  came  back  upon  our  ears,  and 
prolonged  each  line  so  as  to  compel  a  pause  from  the  precen- 
tor in  a  way  that  was  somewhat  ludicrous.  Nevertheless, 
I  was  completely  heard  ;  and  having  Mr.  Archibald,  a  pro- 
bationer, to  conduct  all  but  the  sermon,  I  got  over  the  whole 
with  marvelously  little  fatigue.  The  open  air  in  front,  and 
freedom  from  all  heat  and  stifling,  made  it  far  easier  for  me 
than  if  I  had  been  in  the  tent." 


358  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

Dr.  Chalmers's  text  upon  this  occasion  was  his  favorite 
one  from  Isaiah  xxvii.  4,  5,  "  The  breathless  interest,"  says 
Mr.  Thomson,  "  with  which  the  people  listened  was  very 
striking,  and  the  blessed  fruits  of  that  discourse  will  all  be 
known  only  at  the  great  day." 

It  was  the  domestic  quiet  and  Christian  converse  of  the 
manse  of  Carnoustie  which  endeared  it  to  him.  Speaking 
to  Mrs.  Dymock  of  the  pleasure  of  Christian  friendship,  he 
said — "  But  we  are  wayward  ;  where  we  love  much  we 
.often  love  wrong.  We  must  take  care  of  fixing  our  hearts 
on  earth.  Yet  we  have  a  warrant  in  the  Bible  for  loving 
much  : — '  Love  one  another  with  a  pure  heart  fervently.' 
It  may  be  fervently,  if  it  be  first  with  a  pure  heart.  ^  ^  =^ 
You  do  not  know  how  much  I  need  your  prayers.  This  is 
one  of  the  pleasures  of  Christian  affection.  Christians  may 
and  should  think  most  of  one  another,  in  their  holiest  and 
happiest  moments.  Pwemember  me  in  your  holiest  moments 
— your  moments  of  prayer. "*"  Some  time  afterward,  he 
said,  "  Pwemember  you  have  promised  to  pray  for  me,"  add- 
ing, "  every  time  you  pray,  for  I  am  a  poor  wretched  sin- 
ner." Upon  another  occasion  he  said,  "I  hope  you  find  no 
difficulty  in  appropriating  Christ.  If  I  were  to  come  as  an 
accredited  agent  to  you  from  the  upper  sanctuary,  with  a 
letter  of  invitation  to  you,  with  your  name  and  address  on  it, 
you  would  not  doubt  your  warrant  to  accept  it.  Wei],  here 
is  the  Bible,  your  invitation  to  come  to  Christ.  It  does  not 
bear  your  name  and  address,  but  it  says  '  Whosoever  ' — that 
takes  you  in  ;  it  says  '  all' — that  takes  you  in  ;  it  says  *  if 
any' — that  takes  you  in.  What  can  be  surer  or  freer  than 
that  ?  I  have  been  reading  some  treatises  on  the  appropri- 
ation of  Christ,  and  I  like  them,  especially  Ebenezer  Erskine 
on  the  Assurance  of  Faith. "t      Having  been  engaged  in  this 

*  From  Notes  taken  at  the  time  by  Mrs.  Dymock. 

t  "  I  enjoyed  also  my  readings  of  the  little  book  which  I  have  as  my 
companion  at  present,  a  collection  of  little  works  on  the  assurance  of 
faith.     Its  doctrine  is  very  precious — the  warrant  for  appropriation  in 


^T.  63.  PIOUS  CONVERSATIOiNS.  359 

way  for  some  time,  he  said — "  This  is  the  kind  of  conversa- 
tion I  like."  It  was  not  often  that  he  indulged  in  it.  He 
had  too  great  humbleness  of  mind — too  great  natural  secret- 
iveness,  and  too  great  recoil  from  some  of  the  too  frequent 
characteristics  of  religious  conversation,  often  to  embark  in  it. 
But  when  it  came,  simply  and  unaffectedly,  the  keenness 
of  his  rehsh  for  it  shewed  the  depth  and  the  tenderness  of 
his  piety.  Engrossed  though  he  was  with  the  public  and 
outward  business  of  the  Church,  such  conversations  as  those 
of  Carnoustie  Manse  indicated  how  naturally  and  how  fondly 
his  spirits  reverted  to  and  reposed  upon  the  most  spiritual 
truths  of  Christianity.  "  I  regret  exceedingly,"  he  wrote  to 
Mrs.  Chalmers  in  the  course  of  this  tour,  "  that  this  bustling, 
various,  engrossing  work  should  so  encroach  on  the  higher 
occupations  of  good  reading  and  good  thinking;  I  do  hope 
to  make  my  escape  from  it ;   and  yet  I  can  not  but  feel  that 

the  message  or  good  news  of  salvation.  J  feel  confident  that  nothing 
else  will  do,  but  that  this  will ;  that  Christ's  offer  to  me  in  particular, 
if  only  trusted,  will  be  realized  ;  and  more  especially  that  his  offer  of 
strength,  if  so  trusted,  will  avail  for  the  mastery  over  every  temptation, 
and  for  the  achievement  of  all  holy  and  acceptable  obedience." — From 
Letter  to  Mrs.  Chalmers,  dated  Monboddo,   September  2d,  1843. 

The  volume  referred  to  in  this  extract  became  a  great  favorite  of 
Dr.  Chalmers,  and  was  frequently  and  earnestly  recommended  to  his 
students.  It  is  entitled — "  Saving  Faith  as  laid  down  in  the  Word  of 
God  :  being  a  series  of  works  by  the  following  authors  : — John  An- 
derson, D.D.,  United  States :  Rev.  Ebenezer  Erskine  of  Stirling ;  and 
Rev.  William  Cudworth  of  Norwich."  Edinburgh,  John  Johnstone, 
1843.  In  reference  to  one  of  those  treatises,  Dr.  Chalmers  wrote  as 
follows  to  Mr.  Lennox  : — "  I  have  been  reading  with  great  interest 
lately  the  work  of  an  American  divine,  whose  name  I  had  never  before 
heard  of — Dr.  Anderson.  I  believe  that  the  little  treatise  to  which  I 
refer  was  published  about  fifty  years  back  ;  and  I  have  since  seen  and 
perused  another  work  of  his,  entitled  '  Precious  Truth,'  in  reply  to  Mr. 
Bellamy,  the  well-known  American  theologian.  The  title  of  the  treat- 
ise is,  '  The  Scripture  Doctrine  of  the  Appropriation  which  is  in  the 
Nature  of  Saving  Faith.'  I  hold  it  to  be  a  first-rate  composition,  and 
well-fitted  to  dispel  the  obscuration  which  your  Bellamy,  and  even  Jon- 
athan Edwards  himself,  do  sometimes  (I  apprehend)  cast  on  the  free- 
nes<5  of  the  Gospel." 


360  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1843. 

I  have  a  call  to  ray  present  doings.  My  heart  is  drawn 
toward  the  sacrificing  ministers.  I  do  hope  that  a  system 
of  adequate  provision  will  be  set  up,  and  kept  up  not  only 
for  supporting  but  extending  the  Free  Church.  Meanwhile, 
let  us  cast  more  of  our  care  and  confidence  upon  God.  To 
him  I  would  commit  all  our  interests,  both  for  time  and  for 
eternity."* 

*  From  letter,  dated  Monboddo,  August  30th,  1843. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  1844— FRUITS  OF  THE 
YEAR'S  LABORS— HISTORY  OF  THE  SUSTENTATION 
FUND— PROPOSED  MODIFICATION— ITS  REJECTION  BY 
THE  FREE  CHURCH. 

Dr.  Chalmers  returned  from  his  Sustentation  tour  in  the 
North  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  held  at 
Glasgow  in  October,  which  he  opened  by  a  sermon  on  the 
"  Outward  business  of  the  House  of  God,"  from  the  text, 
Nehemiah,  xi.  16.  The  object  of  this  meeting  was,  to  re- 
vive in  the  west  of  Scotland  that  impulse  which  the  presence 
of  the  outgoing  ministers  had  created  in  Edinburgh.  Interim 
reports  of  the  various  operations  of  the  Church  were  read, 
all  bright  with  promise,  but  covering  too  brief  a  period  to 
give  accurate  augury  of  the  future.  Reanimated  by  their 
intercourse,  the  ministers  returned  to  prosecute  their  labors 
amid  greater  outward  difficulties,  but  with  undiminished  ar- 
dor, during  the  succeeding  winter.  The  results,  as  announced 
at  the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  in  May,  1844,  were 
in  the  highest  degree  encouraging. 

Without  exception,  all  the  Missionaries  in  foreign  stations 
had  declared  their  adhesion  to  the  Free  Church.  This  testi- 
mony was  doubly  valuable,  as  coming  from  men  who  had  been 
quiet  spectators  of  the  conflict,  the  purity  and  devotedness  of 
whose  character  was  above  all  suspicion,  and  who  must  have 
had  many  fears  as  to  the  probabilities  of  an  infant  Church, 
struggling  for  life  at  home,  being  able  to  continue  their  services 
abroad.  Their  fears  were  disappointed  ;  for,  notwithstanding 
all  that  she  otherwise  had  to  do,  the  Free  Church,  in  the 
first  year  of  her  existence,  raised  no  less  than  £32,000  for 
her  various  schemes  of  Christian  philanthropy — a  sum  greater 

VOL.   IV.— Q 


362  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1844 

by  £12,000  than  had  been  raised  by  the  whole  Church  in 
the  year  1842. 

It  had  been  looked  upon  as  a  marvel,  that  in  the  course  of 
seven  years  previous  to  the  Disruption,  two  hundred  churches 
should  have  been  built,  in  connection  with  a  Church  the 
whole  number  of  whose  ministers  numbered  about  a  thousand. 
But  that  marvel  was  lost  in  this — that  by  a  Church,  whose 
ministers  numbered  at  the  commencement  only  470,  nearly 
500  churches  were  built  in  a  single  year.  And  yet  the  work 
of  church-building  was  far  from  finished  ;  for,  contrary  to  all 
anticipations,  the  people  had  forsaken  the  Establishment  in 
a  much  higher  ratio,  as  to  numbers,  than  the  ministers  ;  and 
it  would  have  required  more  than  700  churches  to  accommo- 
date the  congregations  who  were  ready  to  attach  themselves 
to  the  Free  Church.  To  meet  the  spiritual  wants  of  more 
than  200  unprovided  congregations,  the  Church  had  only 
130  licentiates  at  command,  some  of  whom,  it  might  be  pre- 
sumed, were  unlikely  to  be  elected  as  ministers.  Of  these, 
so  many  as  114  were  ordained  in  the  course  of  a  year,  which 
saw  the  original  Church  of  the  Disruption,  making  an  addition 
of  about  one-fourth  to  the  number  of  her  ministers. 

Setting  aside  the  generous  aid  rendered  by  strangers,  up 
ward  of  £300,000  had  been  contributed  by  a  community, 
which  at  this  period  could  not  embrace  so  much  as  one-third 
of  the  population  of  Scotland.  That  particular  branch  of  the 
general  revenue  which  was  devoted  to  the  maintenance  and 
extension  of  the  ministry  appeared  also  to  be  in  a  prosperous 
condition.  Adopting  the  suggestions  embodied  in  a  pamphlet 
by  Dr.  Chalmers,  printed  and  privately  circulated  in  1843,* 
two  sources  of  ministerial  income  had  been  opened.  The 
produce  of  all  the  local  associations  constituted  a  general 
fund,  out  of  which  each  minister  received  an  equal  dividend ; 
while  from  the  collections  at  the  church  doors,  each  congrega- 

*  For  some  extracts  from  this  pamphlet,  entitled  "  Considerations 
on  the  Economics  and  Platform  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,"  see 
Appendix,  E. 


JET.  64.  THE  SUSTENTATION  FUND.  363 


tion  was  permitted  and  encouraged  to  supplement  the  salary 
of  its  clergyman.  With  the  Central  Sustentation  Fund,  estab- 
lished by  the  Free  Church,  the  name  of  Dr.  Chalmers  is  im- 
perishably  connected.  It  stands  and  will  long  abide  as  the 
best  monument  of  his  genius  in  ecclesiastical  finance.  Com- 
pared with  the  system  under  which  each  separate  congrega- 
tion sustains  its  own  ministry,  it  presented  many  and  peculiar 
recommendations.  By  drawing  from  the  abundance  of  the  rich 
a  fixed  supply  for  the  necessities  of  the  poor,  it  preserved  a 
Christian  ministry  in  many  districts  where  otherwise  it  must 
have  expired.  By  binding  the  strong  and  the  weak  together, 
it  created  a  new  species  of  unity  in  the  Church,  and  breath- 
ed throughout  it  a  fresh  and  healthful  spirit  of  brotherhood. 
By  erecting  orderly  channels  through  which  the  overflowing 
liberality  of  the  wealthier  congregations  was  spread  equally 
within  the  whole  area  of  the  Church,  it  established  a  security 
against  the  fitful  and  capricious  distributions  of  individual 
benevolence.  By  inviting  every  member  of  the  Church  to 
unite,  not  simply  in  supporting  that  clergyman  whose  serv- 
ices he  personally  enjoyed,  but  in  sustaining  and  extending 
a  gospel  ministry  throughout  the  land,  wherever  it  was 
needed,  it  gave  a  new,  if  not  a  purer  motive  to  his  liberality, 
supplying  it  "  with  a  wider  aim,  and  a  nobler  arena."  The 
actual  income,  it  is  true,  which  in  the  first  year  of  its  existence 
it  supplied,  was  comparatively  small  and  insufficient.  The 
whole  sum  yielded  by  the  Associations  throughout  that  year 
amounted  to  £68,700,  which,  divided  equally  among  600 
clergymen,  afforded  to  each  a  salary  of  £100.  Many,  how- 
ever, of  the  Associations  had  but  recently  been  organized 
— many  had  been  in  full  working  order,  under  the  eye  of  an 
ordained  clergyman,  during  a  portion  only  of  the  past  )^ear  ; 
and  when  the  large  and  exhausting  efibrts  expended  upon 
church-building  were  over,  it  was  confidently  and  generally 
expected  that  the  Sustentation  Fund  would  be  largely  replen- 
ished. To  some  extent  Dr.  Chalmers  participated  in  this 
expectation.      He  rejoiced  that  one  of  the  primary  objects  of 


364  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1844. 

the  Fund — the  maintenance  of  the  Church  of  the  Disruption  in 
all  its  original  magnitude,  had  been  more  than  realized.  But 
he  had  been  watching  with  eager  and  anxious  eye  the  working 
of  the  system  during  the  past  twelvemonth;  he  had  subjected 
the  returns  which  specified  each  item  of  congregational  income, 
and  the  object  to  which  it  was  appropriated,  to  a  most  search- 
ing scrutiny,  and  the  result  was,  that  beneath  a  flourishing 
outward  aspect  he  detected  symptoms  of  weakness  and  decay, 
presages  of  a  contracted  rather  than  of  an  expanding  Church. 
Dividing  all  the  congregations  of  the  Free  Church  into  two 
classes — those  which  gave  into  the  Fund  more  than  they  got 
out  of  it,  and  those  which  got  more  than  they  gave,  it  ex- 
cited his  liveliest  apprehensions  to  discover  that  more  than 
three-fourths  of  the  whole  belonged  to  the  latter,  while  by  so 
small  a  number  as  fifteen  of  the  former,  one-fifth  of  the  whole 
Fund  was  furnished.  Confining  his  attention  again  to  the 
aid-receiving  congregations,  the  sluggishness  of  some  and  the 
selfishness  of  others,  pained  and  alarmed  him.  More  than  150 
congregations  gave  less  than  £20,  and  more  than  350  less  than 
£50  to  the  Fund,  and  yet  some  of  them  reckoned  their  com- 
municants by  hundreds.  He  would  not  admit  the  plea  of  pov- 
erty, when  urged  in  excuse  of  such  neglect  of  duty.  "  I  am  only 
sorry,"  he  said  in  the  General  Assembly  of  1844,  "when  some 
of  the  Highland  brethren  were  telling  us  of  the  inability  of 
the  people  in  some  districts  to  give  any  thing,  that  I  did  not 
put  the  question,  whether  the  practice  of  snuffing  was  at  all 
prevalent  among  them  ?  Why,  I  believe  that  I  could  make 
out  by  the  Excise  returns,  that  in  the  island  of  Islay  alone, 
some  £6000  a  year  is  spent  on  tobacco.  The  power  of  lit- 
tles is  wonderful.  I  began  with  pennies;  I  now  come  down 
to  pinches,  and  say  that  if  we  got  but  a  tenth  of  the  snufF 
used  by  Highlanders — every  tenth  pinch — it  would  enable 
us  to  support  our  whole  ecclesiastical  system  in  the  High- 
lands. It  is  astonishing,  the  power  of  infinitesimals.  The 
mass  of  the  planet  Jupiter  is  made  up  of  infinitesimals;  and 
surely,  after  that,  it  is  in  the  power  of  infinitesimals  to  make 


/ET.  64.  DR.  CHALMERS'S  DISAPPOINTMENT.  3G5 

up  a  stipend  for  the  minister  of  Ballachulish  I"  But  the 
playful  changed  into  the  indignant  when  he  turned  to  con- 
template those  congregations  which,  while  receiving  from  the 
Fund  more  than  they  contributed  to  it,  afforded  palpable 
evidence  of  their  ability  to  be  aid-giving,  rather  than  aid-get- 
ting, by  what  they  raised  for  their  own  home  uses.  He  won- 
dered whether  the  congregational  conscience  was  at  all 
awake,  when  they  could  permit  themselves  to  extract  from 
a  Fund,  designed  for  the  weak  and  helpless,  twice  as  much 
as  they  forwarded  to  it,  and  yet  give  to  their  own  minister  a 
supplement  twice  or  thrice,  or  eight  or  ten  times  greater 
than  their  contribution  to  the  Fund.  He  foresaw  and  he 
deplored  the  fatal  influence  which  such  apathy  and  ignoble 
selfishness  must  necessarily  in  the  long  run  exert,  in  deaden- 
ing the  generosity  of  the  wealthier  and  aid-giving  congrega- 
tions, who  could  not  fail  to  be  disheartened  by  perceiving 
that  though,  year  after  year,  they  renewed  their  efforts  to 
enlarge  the  Fund  and  raise  the  equal  dividend,  these  efforts 
were  fruitless.  And  still  more  distressing  to  Dr.  Chalmers 
than  the  depression  of  the  general  ministerial  income  which 
he  anticipated,  was  the  fatal  check  to  Church  extension 
which  these  aid-receiving  congregations  interposed.  "  It  is, 
no  doubt,  desirable,"  he  writes,  "  that  we  should  increase 
both  the  number  and  liberality  of  the  aid-giving  congrega- 
tions, but  it  is  of  far  more  vital  importance  to  our  cause  that 
we  should  lessen  the  number,  and  diminish  the  enormous 
absorptions  of  the  aid-receiving  congregations.  They  form  a 
wall  of  interception  in  the  way  of  extending  the  Church  to 
places  and  people  more  destitute  than  themselves  ;  or  per- 
haps they  were  better  compared  to  an  annular  belt  of  sand, 
which  drinks  in  all  the  waters  that  issue  from  the  central 
reservoir,  making  it  impossible  to  reach  or  fertilize  the  regions 
beyond  it.  We  should  infinitely  less  value  all  the  additional 
hundreds  and  thousands  that  might  be  raised  from  the 
wealthier  congregations,  than  we  should  an  average  elevation 
of  £50  in  the  contributions  that  come  to  us  from  the  lower 


366  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1844. 

half  of  the  scale.  This  were  like  the  opening  of  a  gate  that 
would  set  us  at  liberty,  and  make  us  free  to  expatiate,  so 
that  we  might  find  our  way  both  to  the  most  wretched  popu- 
lation in  towns,  and  to  the  poorest  and  remotest  extremities 
of  Scotland."*  Dr.  Chalmers's  chief  desire  for  the  Free 
Church  was,  that  she  should  prove  instrumental  for  accom- 
plishing this  design  ;  and  his  fondest  anticipation  as  to  the 
Sustentation  Fund  had  been,  that  it  would  afford  her  an  ad- 
ditional facility  for  doing  so.  As  things  stood  this  could  not 
he.  With  more  than  a  hundred  congregations  of  adherents 
craving  to  be  supplied  with  a  regular  ministry,  and  ready  to 
absorb  all  that  the  General  Fund  could  furnish,  that  Fund 
was  smitten  with  impotence  as  an  instrument  of  Church  ex- 
tension. Dr.  Chalmers,  to  a  large  extent,  attributed  this  to 
the  fixed  and  universal  equality  of  the  dividend.  When  the 
rule  was  absolute  that,  let  a  congregation  give  what  it  liked, 
its  minister  should  receive  the  same  salary  from  the  Fund, 
no  stimulus  was  applied  to  its  generosity — no  check  imposed 
upon  its  selfishness.  This  rule,  he  conceived,  should  be  re- 
linquished, and  some  other  adopted  in  its  stead,  constructed 
upon  the  principle  that  the  "  gettings  out"  should  bear  some 
equitable  proportion  to  the  "  givings  in."  In  deliberating 
upon  what  substitute  he  should  propose,  there  were  two 
qualities  or  characteristics  which  he  regarded  as  essential.  It 
should  be  simple,  unencumbered  with  minute  or  complicated 
details  ;  and  it  should  be  self-acting,  self-regulating,  needing 
not  the  constant  interference  or  agency  of  any  central  author- 
ity. Under  a  conviction,  matured  and  strong,  that  a  change 
in  the  method  of  distribution  was  imperatively  required,  and 
with  these  qualities  or  characteristics  before  his  eye,  he  pro- 
posed to  the  General  Assembly  of  1844,  that  the  equal 
dividend  should  be  abolished  ;  that  no  Congregation  should 
be  put  upon  the  Fund  till  its  annual  contributions  should 
amount  to  £50  ;  and  that  each  Congregation  should  receive 
from  the  Fund  one-half  more  than  it  transmitted,  till  the 
*  Earnest  Appeal,  p.  14. 


MT.  64.  PROPOSED  MODIFICATION.  367 


ministerial  income  should  amount  to  £150.  The  proposi- 
tion came  abruptly  upon  an  Assembly,  unprepared,  amid  the 
glow  of  early  triumphs,  to  he  told  of  impending  disaster. 
The  exi.stence  of  so  great  a  peril,  and  the  necessity  for  so 
great  and  immediate  a  change  were  not  perceived,  and  the 
remedy  suggested  was  as  little  relished  as  the  need  for  its 
application  was  felt.  It  was  strenuously  and  almost  unani- 
mously rejected.  All  that  Dr.  Chalmers  could  obtain,  was 
the  consent  of  the  Assembly  that  a  trial  of  his  method  should 
be  made  in  future,  with  such  new  charges  as  were  added  to 
the  Church  ;  and  that  a  committee  should  be  instructed  to 
watch  over  all  embryo  congregations,  and  stimulate  their 
associations  into  such  activity  that  they  might  prove  less 
burdensome  than  heretofore,  when  sanctioned  as  ministerial 
charges.  In  the  spring  of  1845,  he  printed  and  circulated 
a  pamphlet,  "On  the   Economics  of  the   Free   Church  of 

Scotland,"  the  preface  of  which  commenced  as  follows  : 

"In  announcing  my  determination  now  to  retire  from  the 
public  business  of  the  Free  Church,  I  feel  confident  that  it 
will  not  be  ascribed  to  any  decay  of  affection  for  its  cause. 
It  is  not  a  matter  of  choice,  but  of  physical  necessity,  I  have 
neither  the  vigor  nor  the  alertness  of  former  days  ;  and  the 
strength  no  longer  remains  with  me,  either  for  the  debates 
of  the  Assembly,  or  for  the  details  of  committees  and  their 
correspondence. 

"  At  the  last  Assembly,  during  the  first  days  of  which  I 
enjoyed  a  health  that  I  never  expect  to  regain,  I  did  a  very 
rash  thing.  I  moved  the  appointment  of  an  extension 
committee,  and  accepted  of  its  convenership.  I  fondly  imag- 
ined the  possibility  of  weathering  one  twelvemonth  more  of 
such  active  service  as  had  long  been  familiar  to  me,  and 
deemed  the  object  I  had  in  view  of  such  special  importance 
as  to  justify  the  attempt.  A  few  weeks  convinced  me  of  my 
error  ;  and,  since  the  month  of  August,  my  connection  with 
our  financial  affairs  has  been  little  better  than  nominal.  I 
can  still  describe,  however,  what  I  can  not  execute ;  and  the 


363  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1844. 

process  which  I  hoped  to  set  a-going  will  be  laid  before  the 
reader  in  the  following  pages.  Its  accomplishment  by  me  is 
now  wholly  out  of  the  question  ;  and,  if  judged  worthy  by 
the  Church  of  being  carried  into  effect,  should  be  devolved 
on  younger  and  abler  men." 

As  the  General  Assembly  of  1845,  whose  transactions  this 
pamphlet  was  mainly  intended  to  influence,  made  no  approx- 
imation whatever  toward  the  adoption  of  its  views,*  Dr. 
Chalmers  had  it  reprinted  and  published  in  the  spring  of 
the  following  year,  under  the  new  title  of  an  "  Earnest 
Appeal  to  the  Free  Church  on  the  subject  of  its  Econo- 
mics."!     A  second  preface  prefixed  to  the  pamphlet,  opened 

*  How  deeply  Dr.  Chalmers  felt  this,  appears  from  the  following 
letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Tweedie  : 

"  MoRNiNGSiDE,  29^^  November,  1845. 

'•]\Iy  dear  Sir — I  have  been  greatly  saddened  ever  since  I  heard 
from  you  of  the  set  in,  on  the  part  of  the  ministers,  for  an  equal  div- 
idend— believing  as  I  do  that  it  will  ruin  the  economics  of  the  Church, 
and  reduce  what  I  fondly  hoped  could  have  been  worked  up  into  a 
great  national  institute  within  the  narrow  dimensions  of  a  limited  ec- 
clesiastical corporation.  It  is  in  sorrow  and  not  in  anger  that  I  write 
— the  latter  emotion  being  the  excitable  one  in  the  heat  of  an  argu- 
ment yet  hopeful  with  an  opposing  adversary.  Such  a  feeling,  how- 
ever, is  completely  overborne  when  hope  expires  and  is  succeeded  by 
the  apathy  of  despair.  My  expectation  now  of  what  has  been  long  the 
object  of  my  existence — a  universal  Christian  education — is  transferred 
from  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  to  such  a  union  of  the  really  good 
and  wise  of  all  evangelical  denominations  as  is  now  contemplated  by 
many. 

"I  can  pay  no  more  earnest  and  prolonged  attention  to  this  melan- 
choly subject  till  spring,  when  I  propose  to  come  forth  with  my  last 
words  in  the  form  of  a  final  protest.  I  shall  endeavor  to  take  refuge 
from  the  disappointment  in  my  professorial  studies  and  the  enjoyment 
of  my  private  friendships.  Among  these  last,  I  have  the  greatest 
value  for  confidential  intercourse  with  yourself,  and  I  do  hope  that  our 
meetings  will  be  frequent.  Let  me  see  you  soon  and  the  sooner  the 
better.  Thomas  Chat.mers. 

"To  the  Rev.  W.  K.  Tweedie." 

t  An  edition  of  this  pamphlet  was  published  in  America  by  the 
Board  of  Publication  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  through  the  lib- 
erality of  a  friend  a  copy  of  it  was  sent  to  each  minister  of  that  Church 


JET.  65.  THE  EARNEST  APPEAL. 


3fi.9 


thus  : — "  The  body  of  this  little  worlc  was  printed,  but  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  published,  last  year.  As  it 
contains  the  most  matured  views  of  its  author,  the  fruit  of 
much  thought  and  of  some  experience,  he  is  unwilling  that 
it  should  be  altogether  lost.  He  therefore  presents  it  anew 
to  the  Church,  in  a  form  which  leaves  the  main  pamphlet 
untouched,  but  with  this  peculiarity  in  its  structure,  that 
each  topic  which  required  any  further  enlargement,  or  to  be 
represented  over  again  with  still  greater  earnestness  and 
urgency  than  before,  has  a  distinct  place  assigned  for  it  in  a 
little  section  with  its  own  distinct  title,  which  sections  are 
made  to  compose  an  Appendix  to  the  work.  It  is  to  this 
Appendix  that  I  would  invite  the  special  attention  of  the 
reader,  as  containing  a  series  of  final  deliverances  on  the 
matters  which  are  there  successively  taken  up.  This  is  the 
last  representation  which  I  mean  to  offer  upon  the  subject ; 
and,  such  being  the  case,  it  is  most  natural  that  I  should  feel 
the  importance,  nay,  the  paramount  duty,  of  stating  not  only 
the  truth,  but  the  whole  truth,  however  unpalatable,  if  but 
salutary  or  needful  and  desirable  to  be  made  known." 

From  a  pamphlet  ushered  in  by  such  weighty  sentences, 
we  offer  an  extract  or  two  bearing  upon  its  main  topic — the 
condition  of  the  Sustentation  Fund. 

"  It  is  obvious  that  if  we  are  to  give  the  same  yearly 
allowance  to  every  new  minister,  however  Httle  we  shall 
receive  from  his  congregational  association,  we  can  not  hold 
out  long  upon  such  a  system,  unless  by  such  successive  re- 
ductions of  the  dividend  as  must  sooner  or  later  involve  the 
whole  Church  in  one  common  overthrow.  This  is  an  argu- 
ment, and  a  strong  one  ;  but  we  confess  that  it  is  not  ours. 
Our  argument  against  the  continuance  of  an  equal  dividend 
is,  that  it  would  put  an  end  to  Church  Extension.  On  the 
principle  that  the  minister's  work  is  of  far  higher  consideration 
that  the  minister's  stipend,  we  have  ever  regarded  an  addition 
to  the  number  of  our  zealous  and  hard-working  ministers  as  of 
paramountly  higher  value  than  an  addition  to  their  livehhood. 


370  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

"The  great  and  essential  reform  needed  upon  our  financial 
system  is  some  provision,  call  it  either  a  stimulus  or  a  check, 
by  the  operation  of  which  our  aid-receiving  associations  shall 
be  either  made  to  contribute  more,  or  receive  less,  from  that 
great  central  fund,  which,  if  but  relieved  from  the  present 
inordinate  pressure,  could  be  made  so  greatly  more  available 
for  our  Church's  prosperity  and  enlargement.  *  =*  *  It  were 
well  if  the  Sustentation  Committee  had  authority  to  proclaim 
such  a  rule  of  distribution,  as  that  if  associations  will  give 
little — whether  because  they  give  much  for  supplements,  or 
from  any  other  cause — they  will  receive  proportionably  little. 
The  enactment  of  '  one  and  a  half  answers  this  purpose, 
though  there  might  be  other  and  perhaps  better  ways  of  it. 
It  were  the  removal,  for  instance,  of  a  mighty  incubus 
upon  our  operations,  if  it  could  be  made  law — that  in  no 
instance  we  should  give  more  than  £50  to  any  minister, 
over  and  above  what  we  received  from  his  association  ; — to 
which  it  might  be  added,  that  the  connection  of  an  associa- 
tion with  the  Sustentation  Committee  should  only  commence 
when  its  own  contribution  came  to  <£50  a  year.  Without 
some  check  of  this  sort,  I  predict,  with  ail  confidence,  but  in 
great  heaviness  of  heart,  that  sooner  or  later  we  must  lay 
our  account  with  a  most  fearful  overthrow  ;  or  at  least,  that 
a  sore  paralysis  will  be  inflicted  on  the  support  and  enlarge- 
ment of  the  Church,  which  might  otherwise,  in  respect  of 
both  these  interests,  be  made  to  advance  most  prosperously." 

The  warning  given  here  was  unheeded.  The  brief  ex- 
periment of  the  "  one  and  a  half"  method  was  abandoned 
by  the  General  Assembly  of  1847,  and  matters  returned  to 
the  position  in  which  they  stood  in  1844.  Recently  how- 
ever, the  opinion  of  the  Church  has  been  undergoing  a 
rapid  change.  The  gross  amount  of  the  fund  has  been 
steadily  progressing  till  from  £68,700  it  has  amounted  to 
the  sum  of  £91,949,  or  within  a  few  hundred  pounds  of 
what  Dr.  Chalmers  predicted  at  the  Convocation,  yet  the 
equal  dividend   has  not  increased.      Considerable  additions 


iET.  65.  RECENT  CHANGES  OF  OPINION.  371 

have  been  made  to  their  returns  by  the  more  generous  con- 
gregations, yet  the  end  aimed  at,  of  increasing  the  annual 
dividend,  is  as  far  out  of  sight  as  ever.  The  charges  which, 
between  1844  and  1847,  were  dealt  with  as  Dr.  Chalmers 
desired,  have  been  put  upon  the  footing  of  the  equal  dividend, 
and  the  result  has  been  a  declension,  almost  -per  saltum,  of 
their  annual  contributions  to  the  extent  of  about  £3000. 
Facts  like  these  have  at  last  sufficed  to  work  a  very  general 
conviction  that  a  change  of  some  kind  is  imperiously  required ; 
and,  as  these  pages  pass  through  the  press,  the  Church  is  in 
the  midst  of  a  controversy  relative  to  a  new  method  of  dis- 
tribution which  has  been  proposed.  It  would  form  but 
another  illustration  of  the  singular  foresight  of  Dr.  Chalmers 
should  the  discussion  upon  which  the  Church  has  thus  em- 
barked terminate  in  the  adoption,  either  of  the  plan  which 
he  recommended,  or  of  one  to  which  the  same  two  features 
of  a  simple  and  self-regulating  character  are  attached.  It 
has  taken  nearly  eight  years  to  convince  the  Church  of  the 
existence  and  fatal  nature  of  the  disease ;  it  may  take  less  to 
satisfy  her  of  the  suitableness  and  efficacy  of  the  remedy. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

CHRISTIAN  Ux\IOX— THE  EVANGELICAL  ALLIANCE. 

During  the  collegiate  session  of  1831—1832,  in  com- 
menting upon  that  section  of  Dr.  Hill's  lectures  on  Divin- 
ity which  relates  to  Church  Government,  Dr.  Chalmers  ad- 
dressed his  students  in  the  following  words  : — "  It  has  been 
exceedingly  well  said  by  the  judicious  Andrew  Fuller,  that 
the  points  on  which  the  disciples  of  the  Saviour  agree  greatly 
outnumber,  and  in  respect  of  importance,  very  greatly  out- 
weigh, the  points  on  which  they  differ — that  for  many  ages 
the  attention  and  the  zeal  of  Christians  have  been  vastly  too 
much  expended  on  the  points  on  which  they  differ,  but  that 
now  it  is  to  be  hoped  the  sentiments  which  they  hold  in  com- 
mon will  be  far  more  the  objects  of  their  steadfast  and  har- 
monious regard. 

"  Without  disputing  the  superior  expediency  of  one  kind 
of  government  to  another,  I  do  think  that,  considering  the 
manifold  ties  of  common  sentiment  and  principle  between  us 
and  the  evangelical  sectaries  of  Chiistendom,  it  were  better 
that  we  drew  more  closely  together,  and  that  the  movement, 
at  all  events,  instead  of  being  one  of  wider  distance  and  sep- 
aration, were  in  the  way  of  kindlier  and  more  intimate  con- 
verse than  we  have  hitherto  held."* 

The  spirit  of  these  remarks  was  fully  participated  by  that 
party  in  the  Church  with  which  Dr.  Chalmers  acted.  The 
great  controversy  in  which  they  became  involved  did  nothing 
to  deaden  it.  It  was  in  the  very  thick  of  that  conflict  that 
they  abolished  the  statute  which,. by  restricting  its  ministerial 

*  See  Prelections  on  Butler''s  Analogy^  Paley.  Hill,  &c.,  Posthumous 
WorhSy  vol.  ix-  p-  425, 


JET.  65.    WESTMINSTER  ASSEMBLY  BICENTENARY.  373 

communion,  had  isolated  the  Church  of  Scotland  from  all  the 
other  Churches  of  the  Reformation;  and  it  was  when  the 
shadow  of  the  Disruption  was  hanging  over  them,  that,  in 
the  General  Assembly  of  1842,  they  moved  and  carried  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  for  the  cultivation  of  friendly 
relations  with  all  evangelical  Churches  at  home  and  abroad. 
An  active  correspondence  with  some  of  these  Churches  had 
in  fact  already  commenced,  originated  by  their  sympathy  with 
that  struggle  of  which  Scotland  had  become  the  theatre — a 
sympathy  of  whose  width  and  depth  an  impressive  token 
was  afforded  by  the  presence  in  the  General  Assemblies  of 
1841  and  1842  of  distinguished  members  of  one  or  other  of 
the  Churches  of  the  Continent.  Amid  its  multifarious  en- 
gagements the  expansive  zeal  of  the  first  General  Assembly 
of  the  Free  Church  found  time  for  prosecuting  the  work  so 
auspiciously  begun.  Measures  were  adopted  for  uniting  with 
other  branches  of  the  Presbyterian  family  in  celebrating  the 
Bicentenary  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines.  This 
great  commemorative  meeting  assembled  in  Edinburgh  on  the 
13th  July,  1843.  Its  object  was  comparatively  a  confined 
one,  but  nothing  narrow  or  sectarian  marked  its  proceedings, 
in  which  Dr.  Chalmers  took  so  conspicuous  and  influential  a 
part  as  to  be  hailed  by  one  of  the  succeeding  speakers  as  the 
great  Apostle  of  Union.  He  was  prepared  to  go  farther  here 
than  many  could  follow.  "  For  myself,"  he  said,  "  I  can 
see  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  our  being  fellow-workers,  and 
that  to  a  great  extent,  for  the  objects  of  our  common  Chris- 
tianity. And  I  rejoice  to  observe  the  growing  prevalence 
and  popularity  of  this  sentiment — a  sentiment  which,  I  can 
perceive,  has  formed  itself  into  a  sort  of  watchword,  brief 
and  memorable,  and  having  in  it  a  certain  cadence  or  allit- 
eration, which  recommends  it  all  the  more  to  the  ear  of  the 
public,  and  is  fitted  to  give  it  a  larger  currency  and  reception 
throughout  the  Churches  of  our  land  ;  I  advert  to  the  well 
known  and  oft-repeated  aphorism  of,  '  Co-operation  without 
Incorporation.'      I  am  aware  that  by  many  this  goodly  and 


374  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

well-sounding  aphorism  has  been  fathered  upon  myself,  and 
yet  it  is  not  just  the  motto  that  I  would  inscribe  upon  an 
escutcheon  wherewith  to  signalize  my  family.  I  have  no 
quarrel  with  the  co-operation,  and  whenever  aught  which  is 
good  is  expedited  thereby,  the  more  of  it  the  better  ;  but  I 
except  to  the  negative,  as  being  by  far  too  absolute,  that  is 
laid  by  this  maxim  on  the  incorporation.  The  truth  is,  that 
wherever  incorporation  can  be  effected  with  advantage  and 
without  violence  to  the  consciences  of  the  parties,  it  is  in 
itself  a  most  desirable  object ;  and  therefore  without  saying, 
roundly  and  universally,  '  Co-operation  without  Incorporation,' 
I  would,  though  at  the  hazard  of  marring  somewhat  the 
euphony  of  the  saying,  and  of  laying  an  arrest  on  its  way 
toward  the  rank  and  celebrity  of  a  proverb — I  would  substi- 
tute for  these  words,  '  Co-operation  now,  and  this  with  the 
view,  as  soon  as  may  be,  to  Incorporation  afterward.'  " 

One  fruitful  source  of  past  divisions — one  signal  obstacle 
to  future  incorporation — lay  in  discordant  beliefs  as  to  the 
form  of  church  government  which  had  been  divinely  pre- 
scribed. But  no  obstruction  of  this  kind  lay  before  Dr. 
Chalmers.  He  did  not  believe  that  any  peculiar  form  of 
ecclesiastical  government  had  been  authoritatively  enjoined, 
so  that  its  adoption  was  matter  of  imperative  and  universal 
obligation.*     Let  there  be  an  essential  unity  of  faith,  and 

*  "  The  contx-oversies  about  Church  Government  have  been  exposed 
to  much  illogical  treatment  from  the  want  of  a  right  discrimination 
between  the  lawful  and  the  obligatory.  The  distinction  which  I  now 
make  is  different  from  that  of  Paul  between  the  lawful  and  the  expe- 
dient. I  use  another  word  than  expedient  at  present ;  and  I  beg  you 
will  attend  to  the  import  of  the  difference  between  that  which  is  lawful 
and  that  which  is  obligatory.  Many  things  are  lawful  for  me  to  do 
which  I  am  under  no  obligation  of  doing  ;  for,  though  lawful  to  do  them, 
it  may  be  equally  law^ful  for  me  to  refrain  from  doing  them.  The  law- 
fulness of  doing  a  particular  thing  does  not  necessarily  imply  the  un- 
lawfulness of  not  doing  it ;  as,  for  example,  it  may  be  lawful  to  cele- 
brate the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper  in  a  sitting  posture,  yet  not  unlaw- 
ful to  celebrate  it  in  a  kneeling  posture  ;  whereas,  if,  instead  of  lawful, 
it  were  obligatory  to  celebrate  it  in  a  sitting  posture,  then  it  would  be 


.ET.  65.  CHRISTIAN  UNION.  375 

he  would  have  merged  his  own  Presbyterianism,  much  as  he 
valued  it,  either  in.  Episcopacy  on  the  one  hand,  or  in  Inde- 
pendency on  the  other,  had  it  appeared  that  the  great  object 
of  a  visible  unity  in  the  Church  of  Christ  could  thereby  have 
been  attained.  In  existing  circumstances  this  was  impossible. 
There  appeared  even  to  be  wise  and  important  purposes  sub- 
served by  those  strong  national,  or  denominational  attach- 
ments, by  which  difierent  sections  of  a  common  Protestantism 
were  characterized.     Every  approximation,  however,  which 

unlawful  to  celebrate  it  kneeling.  In  other  words,  though  you  prove 
the  lawfulness  of  a  given  practice,  you  do  not  on  that  account  prove 
the  unlawfulness  of  a  different  or  an  opposite  practice;  but,  once  make 
out  that  a  practice  is  obligatory,  then  all  other  practices  diverse  from 
it,  or  opposite  to  it,  are  held  in  the  face  of  the  obligation,  and  therefore 
positively  unlawful. 

"  Now,  even  though  the  Independents  should  be  able  to  allege,  which 
I  am  very  far  from  conceding  to  them,  that  their  mode  of  church  gov- 
ernment had  the  warrant  of  scriptural  example,  this  might  establish 
no  more  than  the  lawfulness  of  that  constitution,  but  not,  most  certainly, 
the  exclusive  obligation  of  it.  There  might  be  the  warrant  of  a  scrip- 
tural example,  and  so  far  this  may  be  called  scriptural  authority,  for 
Independency ;  but  I  would  not  hold  such  an  authority  as  this  as  es- 
tablishing the  divine  right  of  Independency.  For  when  we  speak  of 
the  divine  right  of  any  particular  form  of  church  government.  I  imagine 
that  by  this  is  meant,  its  being  obligatory  that  we  should  adopt  that 
form,  and  that  only ;  or,  in  other  words,  by  the  adoption  of  it  we  do 
right,  and  by  the  adoption  of  any  other  we  do  wrong.      *     #     * 

"  I  must  confess  that  the  testimony  of  Epiphanius  is  highly  accord- 
ant wnth  my  own  views  on  the  question  of  church  government,  which 
seems  historically  to  have  been  changed  and  adapted  according  to  the 
purposes  of  what  may  be  termed  Christian  expediency  ;  and  instead  of 
being  decisively  settled  in  Scripture,  left  very  much  to  the  discretion 
of  Christian  men.  In  as  far  as  we  are  at  liberty  to  judge  from  his  ac- 
count of  the  matter,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  regular  Episcopacy 
at  first,  and  that  men,  instead  of  starting  with  it  from  the  days  of  the 
Apostles,  at  length  found  their  way  to  its  more  full  and  formal  estab- 
lishment through  centuries  afterward. 

"  You  will  not  fail  to  perceive  from  what  a  dimly  conjectural  region 
it  is  that  the  authorities  on  all  sides  of  the  question  respecting  church 
government  are  gathered  ;  insomuch  that  I  can  not  enter  with  any  very 
keen  or  decided  earnestness  into  the  controversy  at  all." — Posthumous 
Works,  vol.  ix.  pp.  420-424. 


376  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

the  different  Churches  could  make  to  one  another,  every  thing* 
that  tended  to  cement  their  brotherly  attachment  and  to  bind 
them  in  the  bonds  of  a  closer  fellowship,  Dr.  Chalmers  delight- 
ed to  countenance  and  carry  forward.  In  the  General  Assem- 
bly held  at  Glasgow  in  the  autumn  of  1843,  it  fell  to  him  to 
give  an  account  of  the  various  communications  expressive  of 
approval  and  congratulation  which  had  been  sent  to  him  as 
Moderator  of  the  preceding  Assembly.  "  I  confess  to  you,"  he 
said,  "  that  I  was  much  interested  by  the  arrival,  by  one  post 
after  another,  of  these  addresses  and  resolutions  from  various 
Churches,  of  whose  very  existence  I  was  not  aware  till  I  re- 
ceived their  letters.  And  I  think  that  every  man  whose  heart 
is  in  the  right  place,  will  be  delighted  with  such  movements. 
They  are  movements  quite  in  my  own  favorite  direction — 
because  one  and  all  of  them  are  movements  of  convergency  ;  or 
in  other  words,  movements  which  point,  in  the  first  instance, 
to  union  ;  and,  as  soon  as  possible  and  prudent,  I  trust  their 
landing-place  will  be  incorporation.  There  is  among  them 
one  very  pleasant  address,  signed  b}^ — I  have  not  had  time 
to  count  the  names — but  I  believe  some  of  the  youngsters  of 
my  family  tried  a  more  wholesale  method  of  arriving  at  a 
probable  estimate  of  the  amount  of  support  thus  given  to  the 
Free  Church  ;  instead  of  numbering,  they  measured  it,  and 
found  it  about  seventeen  yards  long."  Having  enumerated 
about  twenty  different  Churches,  at  home  and  abroad,  from 
which  communications  of  this  kind  had  emanated,  '*  I  have 
felt,"  he  added,  "  exceedingly  delighted  with  these  commu- 
nications. I  must  say  that  I  consider  it  as  infinitely  more 
characteristic  of  the  religion  which  we  profess — the  religion 
of  peace  and  charity — that  instead  of  each  denomination  sit- 
ting aloft  and  apart  upon  its  own  hill,  and  frowning  upon 
each  other  from  their  respective  orbits,  that  they  should  hold 
kindly  and  mutual  converse,  and  see  each  other  eye  to  eye, 
while  they  will  discern,  to  their  mutual  astonishment,  if  not 
how  thoroughly,  at  least  how  substantially,  they  are  at  one. 
And  I  just  conclude  with  observing  that  now  is  the  time  to 


^T.  65.  FOREIGN  CHURCHF.S.  377 

rally  about  the  common  standard  all  that  is  pure  and  vital  in 
Protestantism  ;  for  now  it  is  that  we  shall  have  to  make  head 
against  a  new  form  and  revival  of  Antichrist,  whether  in  the 
form  of  Popery — naked  Popery — or  Popery  in  disguise,  even 
that  Antichrist  which  threatens  to  shake  a  most  withering 
mildew  over  the  whole  of  Christendom." 

"  There  is  that  scattereth  yet  increaseth ;"  so  there  is  that 
divideth,  yet  it  tendeth  to  unity.  So  was  it  with  the  Disrup- 
tion. Blamed  by  many  as  a  schismatic  act,  a  great  prompter  to 
and  promoter  of  division — no  public  incident  of  our  times  has 
done  more  to  bring  together  into  one  the  scattered  Churches  of 
the  Reformation.  For  a  time,  and  that  the  very  time  when  it 
was  most  needed,  the  Free  Church  formed  a  centre  of  union 
whence  the  best  and  happiest  influences  were  spread  abroad. 
Its  Assemblies  of  1844  and  1845  prosecuted  that  work  of 
union  which  preceding  Assemblies  had  commenced.  Within 
two  years,  and  around  the  moderator's  chair  of  these  Assem- 
blies, more  Christian  ministers,  of  a  greater  variety  of  profes- 
sion, and  from  greater  distances  on  the  surface  of  this  earth, 
met  for  Christian  fellowship,  than  have  ever  congregated  in 
modern  times  at  the  councils  of  any  of  our  existing  churches. 
And  if  it  cheered  the  Free  Church  amid  her  labors  and  trials 
to  receive  expressions  of  sympathy,  she  was  not  backward  in 
returning  them.  The  Report  of  the  Committee  "  appointed 
for  corresponding  with  Foreign  Churches,  and  aiding  them 
in  their  evangelical  operations,"  given  in  to  the  Assembly 
of  1845,  informed  the  House,  that  for  continental  objects  of 
religious  usefulness  alone,  there  had  been  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  Committee  during  the  preceding  year,  a  sum  three  or 
four  times  exceeding  the  largest  contribution  ever  sent  from 
Scotland  for  the  same  objects.  It  was  upon  a  most  memor- 
able occasion  (that  of  May  28th)  that  this  Report  was  read. 
Dr.  Merle  d'Aubigne  of  Geneva,  Mr.  Frederic  Monod  of 
Paris,  and  Mr.  Kuntze  of  Berlin,  were  present.  Dr.  Chalmers 
had  resolved  to  absent  himself  from  the  meetings  of  this 
Assembly,  but  the  temptation  to  introduce  these  distinguished 


378  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

foreigners  was  too  great  for  him  to  resist.  When  he  entered, 
the  vast  crowd  which  the  singularity  of  the  occasion  had  con- 
gregated, the  whole  House  rose  to  welcome  him,  and  saluted 
him  with  a  tumult  of  generous  applause.^ 

"  The  high  and  honorable  office,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers, 
"  has  been  assigned  to  me  of  announcing  the  presence  in  this 
Assembly  of  certain  evangelical  and  much  esteemed  ministers 
from  various  places  on  the  Continent.  At  the  present  junct- 
ure of  affairs,  I  can  not  but  regard  the  appearance  of  such 
men  among  us  as  providential.  If  ever  there  was  a  time 
when  the  friends  of  a  scriptural  faith  and  a  free  gospel  should 
draw  closer  together,  surely  it  is  now,  when  the  spiritual 
tyranny  of  former  days  is  raising  its  head  again,  and  threat- 
ens to  resume  its  ancient  lordship  over  the  consciences  of 
men.  It  is  possible  that,  for  the  maintenance  of  our  liberty, 
we  may  again  be  called  upon  for  the  same  sacrifices,  for  the 
same  struggles  of  principle  with  power,  for  the  same  heart- 
felt devotion  to  a  noble  cause,  for  the  same  lofty  and  intrepid 
doings  on  the  side  of  Christian  principle,  which  were  first 
put  forth  in  Germany,  under  the  championship  of  one  whom 
I  need  not  name,  because  for  three  centuries  he  has  been 
known  and  revered  over  all  Christendom  as  the  Hero  of  the 
Reformation.  And,  Sir,  I  am  delighted  to  think — it  makes 
me  feel  as  if  I  were  now  at  the  most  interesting  moment  of 
my  existence,  when  I  can  point  to  one  of  those  strangers 
whom,  in  this  great  Assembly,  I  need  as  little  to  name — who 
is  universally  known  as  the  Historian  of  the  Reformation." 
Dr.  Chalmers  proceeded  then  to  speak  of  the  works  of  Dr. 
Merle,  and  of  the  many  interesting  ties  which  bound  together 
Geneva  and  Scotland.  But  the  personal  and  the  national 
was  soon  lost  in  a  wider  topic — "  I  hail,"  said  he,  "  the  footsteps 
of  those  friends  from  the  Continent,  because  I  know  that  one, 
and  I  believe  that  all  of  them,  may  be  regarded  as  the  apos- 

*  "  The  audience  rose,  shouted,  clapped  their  hands,  and  waved  hats 
and  handkerchiefs."  For  a  fall  description  of  this  scene,  see  "  Germany, 
England,  and  Scotland,"  by  J.  H.  Merle  d'Aubigne,  p.  117. 


^T.  65.  THE  EVANGELICAL  ALLIANCE.  379 

ties  of  Christian  union  ;  and  I  do  hope  that  their  presence 
among  us,  and  their  conversation  with  the  ministers  of 
various  denominations,  M'ill  have  the  effect  of  expediting 
that  sacred  cause  in  this  country.  I  trust  you  will  not  charge 
me  with  over-liberality  if  I  say,  as  I  do  from  my  conscience, 
that  among  the  great  majority  of  evangelical  dissenters  in 
this  country,  I  am  not  aware  of  any  topics  of  difference  which 
J.  do  not  regard  as  so  many  men  of  straw,  and  I  shall  be  ex- 
ceedingly delighted  if  these  gentleman  get  the  heads  of  the 
various  denominations  to  meet  together,  and  consent  to  make 
a  bonfire  of  them." 

In  the  Bicentenary  commemoration  there  had  lain  con- 
cealed the  germ  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance.  Catching  the 
enlarged  and  unsectarian  spirit  which  then  had  been  dis- 
played, John  Henderson,  Esq.,  of  Park,  a  name  dear  now  to 
every  lover  of  the  truth,  proposed  to  eight  distinguished 
clergymen  of  various  churches  to  frame  together  a  volume  on 
Christian  union.  Dr.  Chalmers  furnished  the  Introductory 
Essay  to  this  volume,  closing  his  brief  sketch  of  "  How  such 
a  union  may  begin,  and  to  what  it  may  eventually  lead,"  by 
quoting  a  passage  from  the  Moravian  poet  Gambold,  which 
we  have  heard  him  more  frequently  repeat  than  perhaps  any 
other  passage  in  English  poetry  : 

"  I'm  apt  to  think,  the  man 
That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things,  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God  and  secrets  of  his  empire, 
Would  speak  but  love.     With  him  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  scenes, 
And  make  one  thing  of  all  theolog3\" 

It  was  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  King,  one  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  co- 
adjutors in  the  preparation  of  this  volume,  that  the  first  pro- 
posal of  a  general  conference  emanated.  With  this  proposal 
Dr.  Chalmers  cordially  concurred,  and  his  name  was  placed 
first  in  the  list  of  requisitionists.  The  conference  met  at 
Liverpool  on  the  1st  October,  1845,  and  led  to  the  organiza- 
tion in  the  summer  of  1846  of  the  "  Evangelical  Alliance." 


330  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

Unable  to  take  part  personally  in  the  deliberations  of  the 
*•  Alliance,"  Dr.  Chalmers's  contribution  in  furtherance  of 
its  object  was  given  in  the  form  of  a  pamphlet.  The  main 
drift  of  this  publication  was  to  dissuade  the  Alliance  from 
doctrinal  discussions,  and  invite  it  to  instant  united  action  as 
the  best  expedient  for  promoting  perfect  harmony  of  senti- 
ment, and  even  of  belief.  '•  It  will  not  do,"  he  said,  "  for  the 
thing  to  evaporate,  as  many  other  magnificent  enterprises 
have  done,  in  the  mere  phantasmagoria  of  committeeship 
and  sub-comraitteeship,  with  an  imposing  list  of  officials,  and 
large  periodical  assemblages,  where  first-rate  speakers  make 
their  eloquent  demonstrations,  but  are  sadly  at  fault  for  the 
materials  of  real  business,  or  how  to  assign  an  operative  pro- 
cess by  which  they  might  advance  toward  the  completion  of 
the  object  on  which  they  have  met." 

Dr.  Chalmers  was  at  no  loss  himself  in  prescribing  the 
special  objects  to  which  he  conceived  that  the  members  of 
the  Alliance  should  immediately  direct  their  energies.  "We 
feel  all  confidence,"  he  said,  "  in  recommending  that  they 
should  stand  forth  in  the  character,  first  of  a  great  Anti- 
Popish  Association ;  and  secondly,  of  a  great  Home  Mission  ; 
believing  as  we  do  that  to  walk  together  in  the  field  of 
Christian  philanthropy  is  a  likely  preparation  for  thinking 
together  on  the  questions  of  Christian  Faith."  As  serving 
to  mark  more  distinctively  what  he  conceived  should  be  the 
primary  object  of  the  institution,  he  proposed  that  it  should 
be  called  the  Protestmit  rather  than  the  Evangelical  Al- 
liance. After  describing  the  benefit  which  might  arise  from 
this  change  of  name  in  the  way  of  warding  off  the  perplexi- 
ties which  might  arise  from  any  attempt  to  define  the  evan- 
gelical doctrine,  so  as  to  obtain  for  the  definition  a  universal 
concurrence, 

"There  is  another  argument,"  he  added,  "in  favor  of  our 
proposed  title.  Its  single  watchword  not  only  describes  very 
clearly  the  qualifications  of  the  proposed  membership  ;  but  it 
intimates  with  equal  clearness  what  the  precise  work  is,  in 


^T.  65.         PROPER  OBJECT  OF  THE  ALLIANCE.  381 

which,  when  brought  together  and  formed  into  an  association, 
they  are  expected  to  engage.  It  is  an  alliance  in  delense  of 
Protestantism.  Were  there  no  danger  to  be  warded  off,  there 
might  be  no  reason  in  pleading  for  such  an  association  as  we 
now  advocate,  or  for  its  title  either.  But  who  can  deny  the 
existence  of  a  most  imminent  and  daily  increasing  danger  ? 
Who  can  be  ignorant  of  the  busy  aggressive  proselytism  and 
undermining  policy  that  are  now  in  active  operation,  under 
the  conduct  of  agents  and  emissaries  from  the  Church  of 
Rome  ?  Who  can  be  blind  to  the  evidences  now  sprinofino^ 
up  in  various  lands,  that  the  old  priestcraft  of  the  Middle 
Ages  is  lifting  its  head  again,  and  shedding  baleful  influence 
over  Churches  that  were  wont  to  boast  of  theirs  being  the 
foremost  place,  and  theirs  the  first-rate  services  in  the  cause 
of  the  glorious  Reformation  ?  Whether  the  Antichrist  that 
is  now  reappearing  be  in  the  ancient  and  unmitigated  form 
of  Popery,  or  in  the  no  less  dangerous  though  milder  form  of 
Puseyism,  surely  there  is  most  urgent  call  for  vigilance  and 
alarm  ;  and,  should  it  be  made  the  first  and  most  ostensible 
object  of  the  Alliance  to  repel  the  inroads  of  this  threatening 
mischief,  we  are  confident,  if  such  an  undertaking  were  to 
give  forth  its  certain  sound,  that  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands would  hasten  to  its  summons,  in  the  sacred  cause  of 
religious  freedom,  and  scriptural  Christianity,  and  the  rights 
of  private  judgment.  It  will  be  miserable  indeed,  if  the 
hostile  demonstrations  from  without  do  not  lead  us  to  look 
outwardly  ;  or  if  we  shall  waste  our  energies  on  the  yet  pre- 
mature attempt  to  settle  the  account  between  the  various 
modifications  and  distinctions  of  Protestantism,  when  the 
common  enemy  is  at  the  door,  and  if  not  met  with  a  sys- 
tematic and  combined  resistance,  might  bury  Protestantism, 
throughout  all  its  varieties,  in  one  common  ruin. 

"  We  tell  of  a  distinct  thing  to  be  done,  and  a  distinct 
thing  to  correspond  about,  when  we  state  how  desirable  it  is 
to  ascertain  the  statistics  of  Popery  all  over  the  world,  and 
more  especially  the  statistics  of  Puseyism  and  High  Church- 


382  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

ism — these  great  feeders  of  Popery  in  our  own  island  ;  and 
furthermore,  when  we  state  as  most  fitting  objects  for  deUb- 
eration,  what  the  best  methods  are  by  which  to  arrest  the 
progress  of  this  threatening  mischief,  not  only  at  home,  but 
in  America  and  the  British  Colonies,  and  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  and  every  other  place  where  Jesuitism  is  plying  her 
wiles,  and  practicing  with  deadly  success  her  manifold  delu- 
sions. And  reverting  to  our  own  affairs,  as  well  as  making 
an  advance  from  deliberations  to  doings,  what  more  patent 
than  the  various  methods  by  which  our  literary  and  ecclesi- 
astical and  influential  men  might  arouse  the  Protestant  com- 
munity of  Great  Britian  ;  and  put  our  constituencies  on  the 
alert ;  and  raise  funds  for  the  multiplication  of  scriptural 
schools  ;  and  outrival  our  adversaries,  who  at  this  moment 
are  laboring  with  all  their  might  to  obtain  possession  of  the 
masses  by  their  unwearied  attentions  in  the  houses  of  the 
common  people,  and  doing  whatever  in  them  lies  to  influence 
and  gain  over  our  heretofore  sadly  neglected  population."^ 

In  this  enumeration  of  things  needing  to  be  done.  Dr.  Chal- 
mers put  last  of  all  what  he  had  so  long  considered  to  be 
the  greatest  and  most  urgent  of  all — the  evangelization  of 
the  neglected  masses.  For  more  than  thirty  years  this  had 
been  the  ruling  passion  of  his  life.  That  life,  though  none 
imagined  so  at  this  period,  was  drawing  near  its  close  ;  and 
as  if  knowing  that  its  time  was  short,  this  ruling  passion  rose 
into  redoubled  strength,  and  broke  forth  into  most  beauti- 
ful manifestation.  His  first  expectation  was  that  the  Free 
Church  in  her  organized  capacity,  and  by  help  of  her  Sus- 
tentation  Fund,  might  press  forward  her  Christian  services 
into  the  polluted  recesses  of  city  life,  and  help  to  heal  the 
spreading  leprosy.  That  expectation  failing  he  lifted  at  the 
close  of  his  "  Earnest  Appeal  to  the  Free  Church"  this  im- 
ploring entreaty  to  other  evangelical  denominations  : — "  We 
would  earnestly  wish  the  concurrence,  the  practical  concur- 

*  The  reader  will  recollect  that  these  paragraphs  were  written  in 
1846. 


iET.  65.  EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  MASSES.  383 

rence,  of  all  other  evangelical  communions  in  this  great  work. 
We  are  all  the  more  desirous  of  this,  when  we  think  on  the 
mighty,  nay,  the  yearly  increasing  spaces  of  wild  and  out- 
landish territory  which  are  still  unoccupied.  Are  there  not 
myriads  of  immortal,  yet  perishing  because  neglected,  spirits 
in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  and  other  large  towns  of  Scot- 
land, as  well  as  in  hundreds  of  outfields  throughout  the 
country  at  large,  which  would  require  the  united  efforts  of 
all  the  wise  and  good  in  our  land  for  many  years  to  come  ? 
Why  put  off  for  another  hour,  we  do  not  say  the  fulfillment, 
but  at  all  events  the  commencement  of  this  glorious  enter- 
prise— for  in  truth  this,  though  forming  the  greatest  moral 
problem  of  our  day,  has  scarcely  been  entered  on  ?  In  our 
city  wastes,  in  our  manufacturing  villages,  in  many,  very 
many  of  our  remote  and  rural  hamlets — in  all  these  put  to- 
gether, are  there  thousands  of  families  who  live  in  guilt  and 
die  in  darkness,  and  have  never  up  to  this  moment  been  the 
objects  of  aught  like  an  adequate  effort  for  their  Christian 
education.  Should  not  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
in  sincerity,  form  themselves  into  agencies,  and  select  their 
respective  fields  of  operation  ?  And  though  each  of  these 
bodies  will  labor  far  more  effectively  when  laboring  apart 
from  each  other,  or  when  not  overlaid  by  the  weight  of  that 
very  usual,  but,  at  the  same  time,  very  useless  apparatus — 
we  mean  the  incubus  of  a  complex  and  cumbrous  committee- 
ship— ^yet  this  need  not  hinder  a  busy  converse  and  compar- 
ison of  their  several  methods  on  the  part  of  these  distinct 
bands  of  philanthropists,  the  individual  members  of  which 
might  often  meet  together  in  social  party,  and  there  provoke 
each  other  to  love,  and  more  especially  to  this  great  and  good 
work.  And  another  mighty  benefit  might  be  expected  from 
such  a  co-operation  as  this.  A  common  object  of  Christian 
charity,  zealously  prosecuted  by  all,  will  lead  to  a  more 
general  community  of  thought  and  feeling  betwixt  them.  It 
would  speed  the  cause  of  Christian  union  at  an  infinitely 
more  rapid  pace  than  ever  will  be  effected  by  Synods  and 


334  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845 

Assemblies  laboring  in  conjunct  deliberation  to  n,ew-model 
their  formularies,  and  settle  their  articles  of  agreement.  Let 
us  be  one  in  well-doing ;  and  this,  wherever  there  is  real  sin- 
cerity and  right  good  earnest,  will  prove  the  high-road  to 
being  one  in  sentiment.  A  oneness  in  conduct  will  often 
lead  to  an  essential  oneness  of  creed — for  the  reflex  influence 
of  the  former  upon  the  latter  is  far  greater  than  perhaps  lo- 
gicians and  controversialists  in  theology  are  wilhng  to  allow. 
And  so  may  we  speed  onward  the  accomplishment  of  our 
blessed  Saviour's  prayer — even  that  palpable  unity  among 
Christians,  which  He  has  announced  as  an  indispensable 
stepping-stone  to  the  world's  regeneration." 

When  he  wrote  these  sentences,  he  was  not  without  the 
hope  that  the  Evangelical  AUiance  when  fully  constituted, 
though  not  itself  undertaking  the  great  task,  would  become 
its  public  patron,  by  proclaiming  its  necessity,  and  stimulating 
the  Church  and  Christian  societies  of  Britain  to  its  vigorous 
prosecution.  It  was  mainly,  in  fact,  with  a  view  to  this 
that  his  pamphlet  on  the  Evangelical  AUiance  was  published. 
Here  also,  to  a  large  extent,  his  hope  was  frustrated  ;  but 
the  undying  flame  burned  on,  and  made  for  itself  a  fitting 
vent. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE  WEST  PORT. 

The  Report  of  the  Royal  Commissioners  on  Religious  In- 
struction established  and  proclaimed  the  fact,  that  one-third 
part  of  the  entire  population  of  Edinburgh  had  no  fixed 
connection  with  any  Christian  church.  A  statement,  how- 
ever, couched  in  such  general  terms  could  give  no  adequate 
conception  of  the  religious  condition  of  the  lower  classes  of 
the  community — more  than  three-fourths  of  whom  (and  in 
many  sections  the  proportion  was  much  higher)  had  forsaken 
the  ordinances  and  renounced  all  visible  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity. Nor  was  Edinburgh  at  all  singular  in  this  respect.* 
In  all  the  large  towns  of  the  empire,  the  vast  bulk  of  the 
working  population  had  been  suffered  to  sink  into  a  profound 
abyss  of  ignorance  and  irreligion.  Ever  since  his  own  per- 
sonal observations  at  Glasgow  had  convinced  Dr.  Chalmers 
that  this  was  the  nearest,  the  greatest,  the  most  growing,  and 
the  most  alarming  of  all  our  national  evils,  it  had  been  the  un- 
wearied effort  of  his  life  to  stimulate  into  vigorous  operation 
that  peculiar  instrumentality  which  was  alone  able,  as  he 
believed,  to  cope  with  this  gigantic  evil — effectually  to  re- 
duce, and  finally  to  remove  it.      It  was  to  this  end  that  his 

*  London  is  much  worse — "  It  is  by  no  means  an  uncommon  occur- 
rence for  whole  streets  to  be  found  without  a  single  individual  who 
attends  public  worship,  or  recognizes  the  claims  of  God.  Of  the  work- 
ing classes,  and  especially  of  the  working  men  of  the  metropolis,  there 
is  only  the  merest  fraction  who  are  to  be  seen  within  its  churches  or 
its  chapels,  a  proportion  so  small  as  perfectly  to  appall  the  Christian 
heart  with  the  consideration." — London  City  Mission  Magazine,  Jan. 
1852,  pp.  5-9. 

VOL   ^.^ — E 


386  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

own  ministerial  labors  in  Glasgow  were  so  steadily  and  stren- 
uously directed,  but  the  extraordiary  general  popularity  by 
which  that  ministry  was  attended,  to  a  great  extent  frustrated 
his  attempts,  He  took  up  and  carried  on  the  Church  Exten- 
sion scheme  as  an  effort  on  a  wider  scale  to  compass  the  same 
object ;  but  just  when  that  great  enterprise  had  touched  the 
borders  of  those  wide  moral  wildernesses  which  were  waiting 
to  be  reclaimed,  he  saw  it  arrested  in  its  course.  He  was 
convinced  that  a  Church  in  which  unmitigated  Patronage 
prevailed,  and  over  which  a  direct  spiritual  control  was  ex- 
ercised by  the  State,  could  never  be  an  effective  instrument 
in  Scotland  for  evangelizing  the  masses,  and  this  conviction 
quickened  the  zeal  with  which  he  entered  upon  the  Non-In- 
trusion controversy.  He  longed,  however,  for  the  close  of 
that  controversy,  in  order  that,  rid  of  its  embarrassment,  the 
Church  might  devote  herself  to  this  most  urgent  and  import- 
ant work ;  and  when  the  Disruption  came,  he  cherished  for 
a  brief  season  the  expectation  that,  by  force  of  its  powerful 
impulse,  the  Free  Church  would  be  impelled  onward  to  its 
accomplishment ;  but  busied  with  the  supply  of  so  large  an 
adhering  population,  that  Church  was  unable  to  make  any 
great  or  systematic  effort  in  this  direction.  For  a  time 
he  turned  his  hopes  toward  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  and 
besought  its  countenance  for  his  favorite  method  of  territorial 
cultivation,  but  that  countenance  was  withheld.  Baffled  thus 
in  his  endeavors  to  obtain  the  support  of  public  bodies,  with 
a  conviction  unshaken,  and  zeal  unquenched.  Dr.  Chalmers 
resolved  to  engage  single-handed  in  this  great  enterprise — 
to  select  one  of  the  worst  districts  of  Edinburgh,  and,  by  the 
help  of  such  zealous  associates  as  he  could  gather  around 
him,  to  institute  an  experiment  of  so  testing  a  kind  that, 
if  successful,  it  might  compel  belief  and  invite  imitation.  "I 
have  determined,"  he  says,  writing  to  Mr.  Lennox  on  the 
26th  July,  1844,  "  to  assume  a  poor  district  of  2000  people, 
and  superintend  it  myself,  though  it  be  a  work  greatly  too 
much  for  my  declining  strength  and  means       Yet  such   do 


MT.  65  THE  WEST  PORT.  387 

I  hold  to  be  the  efficiency  of  the  method,  with  the  Divine 
blessing,  that,  perhaps,  as  the  concluding  act  of  my  public 
life,  I  shall  make  the  effort  to  exemplify  what  as  yet  I  have 
only  expounded." 

Recurring  again  to  the  same  topic,  in  a  letter  dated  the 
9th  August — "Indulge  me,"  he  says,  "  if  I  feel  encouraged 
to  state  the  grievous  spiritual  destitution  of  the  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  in  all  our  large  towns  who  are  utter 
strangers  to  all  the  habitual  decencies  of  a  Christian  land.  I 
could  not  in  my  own  individual  strength,  even  though  aided 
by  the  means  and  energies  of  all  my  acquaintances,  ever 
think  of  coping  w^ith  this  enormous  evil  e7t  masse,  or  in  all 
its  magnitude  and  entireness.  I  feel  very  confident  as  to 
the  likeliest  steps  by  which,  piecemeal  and  successively,  the 
whole  even  of  this  great  and  growing  evil  might  be  overtaken. 
But  the  most  which  I  can  personally  undertake  to  do  is,  to 
work  off  one  model  or  normal  specimen  of  the  process,  by 
which  a  single  locality  might  be  reclaimed  from  this  vast 
and  desolate  wilderness  ;  and  after  the  confirmation  of  my 
views  by  a  made-out  experience  of  this  sort,  pressing  it  on 
the  imitation  of  all  other  philanthropists  of  all  other  localities. 
#  *  #  Such  is  the  value  and  importance  which  I  attach 
to  this  enterprise,  that,  now  I  have  done  all  I  can  for  the 
economics  of  the  Free  Church  at  large,  I  mean  to  give  up 
all  general  business,  and,  with  God's  help,  will  devote  my 
remaining  strength  to  the  special  object  which  I  have  now 
explained." 

As  preparatory  to  the  execution  of  his  purpose,  Dr.  Chal- 
mers delivered  four  public  lectures  in  the  months  of  June 
and  July,  directed  mainly  to  the  illustration  of  the  superior 
efficacy  of  local  schools  and  local  churches,  so  related  to  the 
limited  districts  in  which  they  are  planted  as  to  bear  with 
special  and  concentrated  effect  upon  the  surrounding  families  ; 
and  with  as  great  freshness  of  thought  and  feeling  as  if  the 
topic  were  wholly  new  to  him,  the  attractive  and  the  aggres- 
sive systems  were  compared  and  contrasted.    The  time  was. 


388  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

in  one  respect,  favorable  for  a  re-hearing  of  the  subject.  He 
could  present  now  his  favorite  territorial  scheme,  dissociated 
from  all  those  public  questions  with  the  discussion  of  which 
it  had  been  formerly  mixed  up,  and  upon  the  ground  of  its 
own  naked  and  inherent  merits,  he  could  urge  its  claims 
equally  upon  Churchmen  and  Dissenters.  It  was  true  that 
in  each  locality  in  which  that  scheme  was  tried,  he  desired 
to  see  a  church  erected,  which  must  be  connected  with  some 
Christian  communion.  It  was  equally  true,  that  in  that 
particular  locality  which  he  might  himself  select,  the  church 
so  raised  would  come  naturally  to  be  connected  with  the  Free 
Church  ;  but,  with  some  hope  of  his  motives  being  under- 
stood and  appreciated  among  his  former  opponents — the  Vol- 
untaries— he  could  indignantly  repudiate  all  sectarian  aims, 
and  in  the  fervor  of  intense  excitement  could  exclaim — "  Who 
cares  about  the  Free  Church,  compared  with  the  Christian 
good  of  the  people  of  Scotland  ?  Who  cares  about  any 
Church,  but  as  an  instrument  of  Christian  good  ?  for  be  as- 
sured, that  the  moral  and  religious  wellbeing  of  the  population 
is  of  infinitely  higher  importance  than  the  advancement  of 
any  sect."^ 

The  locality  selected  by  Dr.  Chalmers  as  the  scene  of  his 
projected  enterprise  was  the  West  Port ;  a  part  of  Edin- 
burgh to  which  a  few  years  previously  an  infamous  notoriety 
had  been  attached  by  those  secret  murders,  the  discovery  of 
which  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  the  land.  By  an  ac- 
curate survey,  it  was  found  that  the  main  street  and  its 
adjoining  wynds  contained  411  families,  of  which  45  were 
attached  to  some  Christian  communion  ;  70  were  Roman 
Catholics  ;  and  296  had  no  connection  with  any  Church 
whatever.  Out  of  a  gross  population  of  2000,  three-fourths 
of  the  whole,  or  about  1500  of  the  inhabitants  were  living 
— within  sound  of  many  a  Sabbath-bell,  and  with  abundance 
of  contiguous  church  accommodation — lost  to  all  the  habits 

*  This  passage  was  uttered  with  great  vehemence  of  expression, 
at  a  public  meeting  held  in  Edinburgh  on  27th  December,  1845. 


^T.  65.  THE  WEST  TORT.  389 

and  all  the  decencies  of  the  Christian  life.  In  these  families 
the  number  of  children  capable  of  attending  school  was  only 
411,  and  of  these  290  were  growing  up  altogether  untaught. 
The  physical  and  moral  condition  of  this  community  was 
deplorable  :  one-fourth  were  paupers  on  the  poor-roll,  and  one- 
fourth  were  street-beggars,  thieves,  or  prostitutes.  When 
Mr.  Tasker,  the  minister  of  the  West  Port  made  his  first 
visits  to  some  of  the  filthiest  closes,  it  was  no  uncommon 
thing  for  him  to  find  from  twenty  to  thirty  men,  women  and 
children,  huddled  together  in  one  putrid  dwelling,  lying  in- 
discriminately on  the  floor,  waiting  the  return  of  the  bearer 
of  some  well-concocted  begging-letter,  or  the  coming  on  of 
that  darkness  under  which  they  might  sally  out,  to  earn  by 
fair  means  or  by  foul,  the  purchase-money  of  renewed  de- 
bauchery. Upon  one  occasion  he  entered  a  tenement  with 
from  twelve  to  twenty  apartments,  where  every  human  being, 
man  and  woman,  were  so  drunk  they  could  not  hear  their 
own  squalid  infants  crying  in  vain  to  them  for  food.  He 
purchased  some  bread  for  the  children,  and  entering  a  few 
minutes  afterward  a  neighboring  dram-shop,  he  found  a  half- 
drunk  mother  driving  a  bargain  for  more  whisky  with  the 
very  bread  which  her  famishing  children  should  have  been 
eating.  He  went  once  to  a  funeral,  and  found  the  assembled 
company  all  so  drunk  around  the  corpse,  that  he  had  to  go 
and  beg  some  sober  neighbors  to  come  and  carry  the  coffin 
to  the  grave.  These  were  extreme  cases,  indicative,  how- 
ever, of  a  deep  and  general  moral  corruption.  It  was  a 
somewhat  formidable  enterprise — to  many  it  would  have 
seemed  altogether  hopeless — to  come  into  close  quarters  with 
such  a  population.  Aided,  however,  by  that  band  of  zealous 
associates  which  his  public  lectures,  and  the  many  private  in- 
terviews by  M^hich  they  were  followed  up  had  gathered 
around  him,  Dr.  Chalmers  went  hopefully  forward.  The 
plan  of  operations  laid  down  by  him  was  sufficiently  simple, 
but  it  needed  zeal  and  regularity  and  devoted  perseverance 
to  carry  into  execution.      The  West  Port  was  divided  into 


390  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

twenty  districts,  containing  each  about  twenty  familes.  Over 
each  of  these  districts  a  visitor  was  appointed,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  visit,  once  each  week,  all  the  families  committed  to 
his  care;  by  all  such  attention  and  services  as  he  could  offer 
to  win  their  good-will — by  reading  the  Scriptures,  by  dis- 
tributing  tracts,  by  entering  into  conversation,  and  by  en- 
gaging in  prayer — to  promote,  as  fit  openings  were  given 
him,  their  spiritual  welfare.  A  printed  slip,  drawn  up  by 
Dr.  Chalmers,  was  to  be  left  in  every  house  by  each  visitor, 
explaining  the  objects  of  his  present  and  future  calls.*  As 
the  demand  for  education  precedes  that  for  spiritual  instruc- 
tion, it  was  proposed  that  the  first  step  taken  should  be  the 
opening  of  a  school  somewhere  within  the  West  Port,  and 
the  visitors  were  advised  to  direct  much  of  their  attention, 
in  the  first  instance,  to  the  young,  and  to  persuade  parents 
to  send  their  children  to  the  school  which  would  be  opened 
for  them  ere  long  in  some  convenient  place.  In  the  exe- 
cution of  this  plan  there  were  two  points  to  which  Dr. 
Chalmers  attached  particular  importance.  To  protect  the 
purity  of  the  enterprise,  he  was  most  anxious  that  his 
agents  should  not  become  almoners,  and  should  dispense  as 
little  money  as  possible  among  the  poor.  Dilating  upon  this 
subject  in  one  of  his  lectures,  he  recounted  his  own  experi- 
ence at  Glasgow — "  I  may  state  to  you,  that  in  the  outset 
of  my  settlement  in  Glasgow,  I  was  placed  in  the  Tron 
Church  parish,  with  a  population  of  10,000  souls,  which 
afterward  increased.  I  was  anxious  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  habits  of  a  city  population,  and  the  parish  I  got 
was  quite  to  my  mind.  I  was  anxious  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  inner  springs  of  that  department  of  society,  and  I 
therefore  resolved  to  go  personally  round  among  the  people. 
My  first  entry  was  upon  a  close,  reaching  from  the  Salt 
Market  to  the  celebrated  Molendinar  Burn  ;  and  to  be  sure, 
in  that  close  there  were  to  be  found  wretchedness  and  misery 
of  every  kind.  I  was  struck  with  the  great  apparent 
*  See  Appendix,  F. 


^T.  65.  THE  WEST  PORT.  391 

interest  and  cordiality  of  my  reception,  so  very  unlike  to  what 
I  had  anticipated.  There  was  even  a  competition  for  me, 
each  one  wanting  me  into  their  own  house.  I  could  not 
understand  it.  But  I  soon  discovered  that  I  was  thought  to 
possess  great  influence  in  the  city  charities — I  found  that 
was  the  subject  they  constantly  broached  whenever  they  got 
me  into  their  houses.  What  I  judged  and  apprehended  as 
the  consequence  of  this  was,  that  it  would  neutralize  the  in- 
fluence which  I  wanted  to  have  as  a  Christian  minister.  I 
saw  that  this  would  vitiate  my  influence  among  them.  I 
felt  that  it  would  never  do  if  I  were  to  go  among  them  first 
as  a  dispenser  of  temporal  good  things,  and  then  as  urging 
upon  them  the  things  which  make  for  their  everlasting  peace. 
I  felt  the  want  of  compatibility  between  the  two  objects, 
and,  rather  than  defeat  my  primary  object,  I  determined  to 
cut  my  connection  with  the  city  charities,  and  to  let  it  be 
understood  that  I  would  not  attend  any  more  of  the  meetings 
of  this  hospital,  or  that  charity,  or  Millar's  Mortification — I 
am  sure  it  produced  great  mortification  to  me — I  fairly  cut 
my  connection  with  them  all;  I  let  the  people  understand 
that  I  dealt  only  in  one  article,  and  that,  if  they  valued  the 
advantages  of  Christian  instruction,  they  were  welcome  to 
any  approximation  which  I  could  make  to  them.  Now,  the 
thing  that  delighted  me  was,  that  after  this  declaration  was 
made  to  them,  the  people  were  disabused  of  the  imagination 
that  T  had  an  inexhaustible  treasury  to  dispose  of,  and  that 
it  was  in  my  power  to  scatter  plenty  through  their  habita- 
tions, but  that  if  they  would  insist  upon  asking  me,  I  could 
tell  them  that  any  thing  I  might  do  for  them  must  be  at  my 
own  expense,  and  I  was  not  very  rich.  The  effect  of  this 
frankness  between  me  and  the  people  was,  that,  if  there  was 
any  difference,  they  received  me  more  cordially  than  ever. 
#  *  *:  I  had  an  elder  who  was  a  person  of  great  benevolence, 
but  not  so  judicious  and  discriminating  in  this  instance  as  1 
would  have  liked  ;  for  when  I  instituted  the  Sabbath-school 
system,  it  was  reported  to  me  that  he  was  devising,  and  had 


392  MEMOIRS  OF  DK.  CHALMERS  1845, 


gone  a  considerable  length  in  forming — and  the  scheme 
looked  feasible  enough — a  local  Sabbath-sehool  clothing  soci- 
ety for  the  parish  of  St.  John's.  Sir,  said  I  to  him,  your 
society  will  blast  our  Sabbath-school  enterprise  ;  I  wish  to 
have  1200  scholars,  do  you  mean  to  clothe  all  these  ?  No, 
said  he,  only  the  most  necessitous.  Well,  said  I,  but  all 
the  rest  will  wait  their  turn  to  be  clothed,  and  we  shall  get 
no  more  than  a  fraction.  My  object  is  that  they  should 
come  with  the  clothes  they  have  on  ;  so  do  not  embarrass  us 
with  your  society.  I  accordingly  got  the  society  knocked  on 
the  head.  You  may  go  forth  with  perfect  safety,  having 
this  inscription  on  the  forefront  of  your  enterprise — '  Educa- 
tion for  all ;'  but  what  would  be  the  efiect  if  you  were  to  go 
forth  with  this  inscription — '  Money  or  meat  for  all?'  If  you 
go  forth  with  that  inscription  it  will  require  very  little  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  people,  by  a  trifle  more  of  dissipation  or 
of  indolence,  to  qualify  themselves  for  relief  in  that  way." 

He  was  equally  strenuous  in  resisting  the  proposal  that 
in  the  school  about  to  be  opened,  the  children  should  be 
educated  gratuitously.  "  I  don't  think,"  he  said,  "  that  you 
will  achieve  any  permanent  good  for  the  population  unless 
you  enlist  them  as  fellow-workers  in,  or  at  least  as  fellow- 
contributors  to  the  cause.  I  think  that  a  great  and  radical 
error  in  the  management  of  our  population  has  just  pro- 
ceeded from  the  idea  that  they  are  utterly  helpless  and 
unable  to  do  any  thing  for  themselves.  I  believe  that  if 
you  proceed  rightly,  it  will  be  found  that  they  are  able  to 
do  a  great  deal  for  themselves.  I  know  that  there  is  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  on  this  point ;  but  I  stand  up  most  inflex- 
ibly on  the  subject  of  school-fees,  and  think  those  persons 
ought  to  pay  for  the  education  of  their  children.  I  want  to 
train  up  the  families  in  the  sentiment  that  education  is  worth 
its  price,  and  to  win  them  to  the  paying  of  that  price.  I  am 
unfriendly  to  gratuitous  education  ;  nor  do  I  wish  that  any 
of  our  agents,  or  the  people  themselves,  shall,  in  the  imagin- 
ation of  our  indefinite  resources,  look  for  any  relaxation  of 


JET.  65.  THE  WEST  PORT.  393 

this  system.  The  lesson  which  I  am  constantly  giving  out 
is,  that  we  shall  not  be  able  to  do  aught  which  is  per- 
manently effectual  for  the  people's  good,  unless  they  will  lend 
a  hand  and  do  something  for  themselves." 

Dr.  Chalmers  held  his  first  regular  meeting  with  his  agents 
in  Portsburgh  Hall,  an  old  court-house  within  the  bounds  of 
the  West  Port,  on  Saturday  evening,  the  27th  July,  1844. 
Having  made  in  the  interval  their  weekly  round  among  these 
families,  the  visitors  were  to  assemble  here  every  Saturday 
evening  to  give  in  their  reports,  and  to  converse  together 
about  the  most  effectual  methods  of  carrying  on  the  enterprise 
upon  which  they  had  now  fairly  embarked.  Dr.  Chalmers 
was  prevented  by  illness  from  presiding  at  their  meetings  for 
a  few  weeks  in  August  and  September,  but  so  intense  was 
the  interest  which  he  took  in  them,  that  he  addressed  the 
following  notes  to  the  chairman  : — 

'' Morningside,  olst  August,  1844. — It  grieves  me  to 
say,  that  I  at  present  labor  under  such  prostration  of  strength 
as  to  be  unfit  for  the  business  of  meetings.  My  physicians 
have  laid  me  under  an  interdict  against  all  committee  work. 
I  have  pled  hard  with  them  on  behalf  of  the  meetings  of  the 
West  Port,  and  I  am  happy  to  say,  that  so  soon  as  the  in- 
terdict is  removed,  the  first  use  I  will  make  of  my  freedom 
will  be  to  revisit  the  West  Port,  and  take  all  the  share  I 
can  in  the  management  of  its  important  affairs,  deeming  this 
to  be  of  far  greater  importance  than  that  I  should  continue 
my  connection  with  any  of  the  public  committees  of  the 
Church.  These  I  mean  to  give  up  ;  but  our  present  attempt 
to  reclaim  the  population  of  the  West  Port  is  what  I  never 
can  abandon  till  forced  to  it  by  absolute  necessity. 

"  For  the  present,  I  would  only  request  that  full  minutes 
should  be  taken  of  your  meetings,  and  that  I  should  be  favored 
with  the  sight  of  them.  I  fear  that  for  some  little  time  my 
only  converse  with  you  may  be  by  such  a  weekly  letter  as 
the  present.  But  I  trust  that,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  I  may 
soon  appear  among  you  ;   and  I  can  not  adequately  express 


394  iMEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 


how  much  I  long-  for  the  opportunity  of  addressing:  the  house- 
holders of  the  West  Port,  either  in  your   Court-Hall,  or  in 
some  larger  place,  for  the  accommodation  of  a  general  meet- 
ing. Thomas  Chalmers. 
"  My  best  regards  to  all  who  are  assemhled." 

**  Morningside,  6th  September  1  844. — I  return  the  minutes, 
which  I  have  read  with  the  deepest  interest  and  satisfaction. 
"  There  is  one  providential  object  which  might  be  gained 
by  my  present  retirement.  I  feel  quite  certain  that  success 
is  to  be  attained  in  no  other  way  than  by  the  blessing  of  God 
on  the  assiduous  prosecution  of  that  task  which  you  have 
severally  had  the  goodness  to  undertake.  Be  assured  that 
our  doings  will  be  regarded  as  far  more  imitable  if,  instead 
of  being  stimulated  by  the  personal  influence  of  any  one  in- 
dividual, they  are  quietly  and  perseveringly  performed  by 
each  man  doing  his  duty.  I  have  often  said,  that  great  re- 
sults are  to  be  looked  for,  not  from  a  gigantic  exertion  on 
the  part  of  one,  but  from  the  accumulation  and  practicable 
efforts  on  the  part  of  many.  I  hope  that  by  the  time  the 
winter  sets  in,  we  shall  have  all  our  districts  provided  with 
agents,  and  all  our  agents  in  regular  operation. 

"  Thomas  Chalbiers." 

"  Morningside,  20th  September,  1844. — There  is  no 
statement  made  by  any  of  you  which  has  yielded  me  greater 
hope  and  satisfaction  than  the  progressive  liking  which  you 
feel  for  the  families  of  your  respective  districts.  There  can 
not  be  a  better  security,  or  more  solid  guarantee  than  this, 
for  the  perpetuity  of  our  operations.  Let  me,  therefore,  once 
more  entreat  your  perseverance  in  the  great  and  good  work, 
that  with  the  blessing  of  God,  in  answer  to  our  united  prayers, 
a  great  and  signal  benefit  may  be  rendered  to  the  population 
among  whom  you  labor.  With  my  most  cordial  regards  to 
all  members  of  your  meeting,  I  ever  am,  &c., 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 


MT.  65.  THE  WEST  PORT.  395 

A  school-room  was  at  last  obtained.  It  lay  at  the  end 
of  the  very  close  down  which  Burke  and  his  associate  decoy- 
ed their  unconscious  victims.  Fronting  the  den  in  which 
those  horrid  murders  were  committed,  stood  an  old  deserted 
tannery,  whose  upper  store-loft,  approached  from  without  by 
a  flight  of  projecting  M'ooden  stairs,  was  selected  as  affording 
\he  best  accommodation  which  the  neighborhood  could  sup- 
ply. Low-roofed  and  roughly  floored,  its  raw,  unplastered 
walls  pierced  at  irregular  intervals  with  windows  of  unshapely 
form,  it  had  little  either  of  the  scholastic  or  the  ecclesiastical 
in  its  aspect ;  but  never  was  the  true  work  of  school  and 
church  done  better  than  in  that  old  tannery-loft  of  the  West 
Port.  Dr.  Chalmers  invited  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  neigh- 
borhood to  meet  him  there  on  Wednesday,  the  6th  Novem- 
ber. By  this  time  the  frequent  calls  of  the  visitors  had 
awakened  a  general  curiosity,  and  the  invitation  was  accept- 
ed, the  loft  presenting  a  larger  assembly  of  what  he  called 
*'  genuine  West-Porters"  than  had  met  together  for  many 
years.  Acting  upon  the  saying  of  Talleyrand,  which  he  so 
often  quoted  :  "  That  there  is  nothing  formidable  in  meeting 
with  the  very  lowest  of  the  people,  if  you  only  treat  them 
frankly,"  Dr.  Chalmers  told  them  all  that  he  and  his  friends 
meant  to  do  for  them,  and  all  that  he  expected  that  they 
would  do  for  themselves.  He  told  them,  in  homely  but 
vigorous  terms,  that  a  school  was  to  be  opened  for  their  chil- 
dren, and  that  one  of  the  best  teachers  in  the  country  had 
been  obtained  for  it ;  but  that  they  must  pay  twopence  a 
week  for  each  child's  education  ;  that  the  article  they  were 
to  be  supplied  with  was  worth  a  great  deal  more  than  that, 
and  that  they  were  quite  able,  and  he  was  sure  would  be 
quite  willing  to  pay  that  much  for  it.  The  audience  were 
quite  delighted  with  the  address,  and  quite  persuaded  that 
they  both  should  and  could  do  all  that  was  required.  Dr. 
Chalmers  was  singularly  fortunate  in  his  selection  of  his  first 
teacher,  Mr.  Sinclair,  to  whom,  soon  after  his  nomination, 
he  addressed  the  following  letter  : 


396  MBxMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

^^  M(y}'ningside,  oOth  October,  1844. — I  expect  to  tell 
you  in  a  day  or  two  when  the  school  may  be  opened  ;  but, 
meanwhile,  it  is  of  prime  importance  that  you  should  clearly 
understand  our  object. 

"  It  is  not  to  fill  that  school  any  how,  but  to  fill  it  from 
the  families  of  the  West  Port ;  a  process  which  will  be  more 
or  less  gradual,  but  in  which,  if  we  fail,  we  shall  conceive 
our  peculiar  object  to  be  lost — even  though  the  school  should, 
on  being  opened  for  children  from  all  quarters,  be  filled  to  an 
overflow. 

"  I  have  all  confidence  in  your  energy  and  ability  as  a 
teacher,  and  like  exceedingly  the  special  attention  which  you 
mean  to  bestow  on  those  clever  boys  that  you  would  employ 
as  monitors.  But  I  should  particularly  like  that  your  pre- 
ference should  be  for  West  Port  boys,  rather  than  for  those 
who  might  be  afterward  brought  in  from  beyond  the  locality. 
Be  assured  that  you  will  meet  with  a  full  average  of  talent 
among  the  ragged  children  of  this  outlandish  population. 
Our  great  object  in  fact  is,  to  reclaim  them  from  their  pres- 
ent outlandishness,  and  raise  them  to  a  higher  platform.  We 
may  have  a  good  deal  to  encounter  in  the  way  of  slovenliness 
and  untoward  habits  at  the  outset :  but  the  achievement  will 
be  all  the  more  honorable  if  you  succeed  ;  and  be  assured 
that  it  will  be  at  length  productive  of  a  far  mightier  eflect 
on  the  interest  of  plebeian  education  than  if,  lying  open  to 
children  from  all  distances,  you  were  filled  to  the  very  door 
with  a  higher  style  of  scholars  for  better  classes  in  society. 

*'  Let  us  only  have  patience  and  toleration  for  all  the  dis- 
agreeables of  our  outset,  whether  as  regards  the  school  or  the 
scholars.  Let  us  recollect  the  coarse  materials  that  we  have 
in  the  first  instance  to  deal  with,  gradually  to  be  improved, 
however,  by  the  refining  and  humanizing  process  which  they 
will  be  made  to  undergo. 

"  Do  come  then,  my  dear  sir,  with  a  heart  alive  to  the 
importance,  and  resolved,  as  far  as  in  you  lies,  on  the  suc- 
cess of  this  great  enterprise,  and  so  earn  the  title  to  one  of 


^T.  G5.  THE  WEST  PORT. 


397 


the  highest  achievements  which  can  possibly  be  contemplated, 
either  by  the  enlightened  patriot  or  by  the  Christian  philan- 
thropist.—I  am,  &c.,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

The  school  was  opened  with  sixty-four  day  scholars,  and 
fifty-seven  evening  scholars,  on  the  11th  November,  1844  ; 
and  m  the  course  of  a  single  year,  no  fewer  than  250  were 
in  attendance,  and  those  chiefly  from  the  West  Port.  The 
educational  part  of  the  process  having  been  fairly  set  a-going 
the  higher  and  more  difficult  operation  was  commenced,  of 
bringing  the  adult  population  under  regular  spiritual  instruc- 
tion. On  the  forenoon  of  Sabbath  the  22d  December,  Dr. 
Chalmers  opened  the  tan-loft  for  pubHc  worship.  We  were 
present  on  the  evening  of  that  day,  when  the  city  missionary 
officiated,  and  when  we  looked  round  and  saw  that  the  ivhole 
fruit  of  the  advices,  and  requests,  and  entreaties  which  for 
many  previous  weeks  had  been  brought  to  bear  upon  all  the 
families  by  the  visitors,  was  the  presence  of  about  a  dozen 
adults,  and  those  mostly  old  women,  we  confess  to  strono-  mis- 
givings as  to  the  result.  But  the  services  were  regularly 
continued  thrice  each  Sabbath,  and  the  private  agencies  were 
renewed.      In  April,  1845,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  so  pecuharly 

fortunate  as  to  secujre  the  services  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Tasker 

the  attendance  grew  under  his  ministry,  and  at  the  close  of 
the  year  the  nucleus  of  a  good  congregation  began  already 
to  appear.  The  scheme,  however,  was  obviously  working  at 
disadvantage  so  long  as  an  apartment  so  difficult  of  access 
and  so  rudely  fitted  up,  formed  at  once  the  school-room  and 
the  church.  Ground,  therefore,  was  purchased,  and  all  other 
needful  steps  were  taken  for  the  erection  within  the  West 
Port  of  a  church  and  school-room.  Meanwhile,  under  the 
zealous  ministry  of  Mr.  Tasker,  who  in  due  time  was  reo-. 
ularly  ordained,  and  with  the  aid  of  those  ladies  and  gentle- 
men who,  with  the  utmost  devotedness,  gave  themselves  to 
the  work,  all  those  different  operations  were  carried  on  which 
the   reader  will  find  so  well  described  in  the  -  Territorial 


398  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

Visitor's  Manual"  of  Mr.  Tasker.  A  library  and  a  savings'- 
bank,  and  a  washing-house,  and  a  female  industrial  school, 
were  all  established,  and  all  succeeded.  Dr.  Chalmers  preach- 
ed frequently  in  the  loft  ;  addressed  several  meetings  of  the 
inhabitants  to  explain  to  them  the  different  parts  of  the 
scheme,  as  they  successively  were  instituted  ;  presided  at 
many  of  the  agents'  meetings,  and  was,  in  fact,  the  central 
spring  which  set  the  whole  machinery  in  motion.  There 
may  have  been  other  works  of  his  hands,  upon  which  a  larger 
amount  of  labor  was  bestowed,  but  there  was  none  over  which 
so  many  prayers  were  offered.  It  lets  us  into  his  secret  feel- 
ings, and  tells  us  of  the  depth  of  that  peculiar  interest  with 
which  he  watched  the  progress  of  this  undertaking,  when  we 
find  him  in  his  study  at  Morningside,  on  Sabbath  morn  or 
Sabbath  even,  penning  such  prayers  as  these  :  "  It  is  yet  but 
the  day  of  small  things  with  us  ;  and  I  in  all  likelihood  shall 
be  taken  off,  ere  that  much  greater  progress  is  made  in  the 
advancement  of  the  blessed  gospel  throughout  our  land.  But 
give  me  the  foretaste  and  the  confident  foresight  of  this  great 
Christian  and  moral  triumph  ere  I  die.  Let  me  at  least, 
if  it  be  Thy  blessed  will,  see — though  it  should  be  only  in 
one  or  in  a  small  number  of  specimens — a  people  living  in 
some  district  of  aliens,  as  the  West  Port,  reclaimed  at  least 
into  willing  and  obedient  hearers,  afterward  in  Thine  own 
good  time  to  become  the  doers  of  Thy  word.  Give  me,  O 
Lord,  a  token  for  the  larger  accomplishment  of  this  good  ere 
I  die."  "  Moving  fearlessly  onward,  may  I  at  length  obtain 
such  possession  of  the  West  Port,  as  that  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  shall  have  the  moral  ascendency  over  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  its  families.  And  let  me  not  forget  the  conquests  of 
Thine  all-subduing  grace,  and  the  preservations  of  Thy  faith- 
ful servants  in  the  history  of  the  missions  of  other  days. 
And  oh,  in  this  as  well  as  in  other  work,  let  it  be  my  care 
to  follow  the  Lord  fully  ;  neither  let  me  go  up  thither  unless 
Thy  presence  and  favor  go  along  with  me.  Thou  surely 
hast  not  forbidden  this  enterprise  ;   and  therefore  will  we  ever 


JET.  65.  THE  WEST  PORT. 


399 


pray  that  Thou  mayest  prosper  and  extend  it.      We  would 
give  Three  no  rest,  O  Lord,  till  Thou  hast  opened  the  win- 
dow  of  heaven  and  caused  righteousness  to  run  down  that 
street  like  a  mighty  river."      -O  pour  forth  the  spirit  of 
generosity  on  my  coadjutors  and  their  friends  in  the  work  of 
cultivating  the  West  Port  of  Edinburgh  ;   and  let  such  a 
memorial  of  Christian  philanthropy  be  set  up  in  that  place 
as  to  be  a  praise  and  an  example  both  in  the  city  of  our 
habitation  and  in  the  other  cities  of  our  land."      "  Reveal  to 
me,  O  God,  the  right  tactics,  the  right  way  and  method  of 
proceeding   in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  West 
Port.      O  that  I  were  enabled  to  pull  down  the  stroncrholds 
of  sin  and  of  Satan  which  are  there  ;   and  O  save  me^  save 
me  from  the  difficulties  to  which  I  am  exposed  should  hol- 
lowness  of  heart  or  principle  be  found  to  obtain  with  any  of 
the  agency.      O  how  incompetent  I  feel  myself  to  be  for  act- 
mg  the  part  of  a  cautious  and  wise  general  in  the  midst  of 
them.      Be  my  help  and  my  adviser,  O  God,  and  tell  me  by 
Thy  Word  and  Spirit  what  I  ought  to  do."      "  O  my  God, 
give  me  the  power  of  ordering  matters  aright  in  the  West 
Port ;   let  all  be  peace  and  harmony,  and  no  confusion  there  ; 
direct  all  my  footsteps  in  that  undertaking  ;   and  may  I  more 
and  more  be   made  to  abound  in   such   suggestions  as  Thy 
Spirit  will  prompt  and  approve  of      Let  me  keep  all  the  im- 
pulses of  my  own  spirit  under  the  subjection  of  a  presiding 
and  circumspect  wisdom.      And  more  especially,  O  God,  let 
me  understand  Thy  will  in  regard  to  the  right  place  and 
performances  of  a  female  agency.      May  their  work  be  abun- 
dantly blessed  and  countenanced  from  on  high,  and  have  a 
happy  effect  on  the  families.      Let  me  beware  of  mine  being 
too  much  of  a  restraining  authority  ;   and  let  me  seek  tha°t 
all  things  be  done  for  edification,  and  all  things  be  done  de- 
cently and  in  order."      -  Bestow  on  me  in  larger  measure 
and  proportion  that  grace  which  Thou  didst  so  plentifully 
bestow  on  the  churches  of  Macedonia.      Let  it  spread  abroad 
more  and  more  among  the  sadly  deficient  congregations  of 


400  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

our  Free  Church  :  Do  Thou  begin  it  even  now  among  the 
families  of  the  West  Port.  Make  them  willing  in  the  day 
of  Thy  power,  that  abounding  in  all  that  is  good,  they  may 
abound  in  this  grace  also.  It  is  still  but  a  day  of  small 
things.  O,  do  Thou  brighten  it  onward  even  unto  the  latter 
day  glory.  Cause  the  poorest  to  take  part  in  the  fellowship 
of  Christian  charity  ;  and  may  the  substantial  equality  be 
maintained  among  all  the  classes,  by  the  rich  casting  in  their 
larger  gifts,  and  each  man  giving  in  proportion  to  his  ability." 
"  O  my  God,  give  me  to  set  my  delight  here  on  the  excel- 
lent ones  of  the  earth,  that  I  may  be  prepared  for  the  per- 
fect enjoyment  of  their  and  my  presence  before  Jesus  Christ 
at  His  coming  ;  and  draw  close  the  afiection  and  the  affinity 
between  Mr.  Tasker  and  the  families  of  the  West  Port.  Do 
thou  plentifully  endow  him  with  the  graces  and  gifts  of  the 
Aj)ostle  Paul.  May  he  have  many  souls  for  his  hire ;  and 
bestow  Thy  guidance  on  him  and  on  all  the  other  associates 
in  the  good  work  of  attempting  to  reclaim  an  outcast  popu- 
lation to  the  light  and  obedience  of  the  gospel.  O  may  the 
attempt  be  a  successful  one  ;  and  may  he,  in  particular, 
have  many  for  a  crown  of  joy  and  of  rejoicing  in  the  great 
day  of  account."  "  And  I  pray  not  for  myself  alone,  but 
for  him  who  labors  in  holy  things  among  the  families  of  the 
West  Port.  Prosper,  O  Lord,  his  meditations  upon  thy 
word.  Let  me  ever  rejoice  in  the  endowments  which  Thou 
hast  been  pleased  to  bestow  upon  him.  Do  Thou  guide 
and  encourage  him,  O  Lord.  May  he  be  enabled  to  wait 
upon  Thee  without  distraction  ;  and  let  him  so  minister,  that 
not  only  his  own  profiting,  but  the  profiting  of  those  under 
his  charge,  may  appear  unto  all.  O  may  he  not  only  be 
himself  saved,  but  may  he  be  the  instrument  of  salvation  to 
many  ;  and  may  both  he  and  I  be  carried  in  safety  and  at 
length  with  triumph  to  that  prosperous  consummation  for 
which  we  are  jointly  laboring."  ^ 

*  Horse  Sabbaticse,  vol.  i.  pp.  238,  255,  302,  319  ;  and  vol.  ii.  pp. 
229,  238,  241,  303. 


JET.  65.  THE  WEST  PORT.  401 

These  impressive  petitions  were  all  offered  up  while  yet  the 
West  Port  enterprise  was  in  its  infancy — an  infancy  shad- 
owed by  many  doubts  and  fears.  It  was  while  one  of  those 
shadows  hung  over  it  that  Dr.  Chalmers  addressed  the  follow- 
ing letter  to  Mr.  Tasker  : 

"  Fairley,  by  Largs,  Ju7ie  12th,  1845. — My  chief  anxiety 
is  that  neither  you  nor  any  of  our  coadjutors  shall  lose  heart 
because  of  a  less  rapid  progress  than  some  of  them  may  per- 
haps have  anticipated.  We  are  not  worthy  of  having  entered 
on  the  experiment,  if  not  capable  of  persevering  with  it  under 
the  discouragement,  it  may  be,  of  many  alternations,  and  for 
a  time,  if  God  so  please,  to  exercise  our  faith  and  patience, 
of  reverses.  Such  a  spirit  is  peculiarly  called  for  in  a  work 
of  which  it  may  be  pre-eminently  said,  that  except  the  Lord 
build  the  house,  they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it.  ^  *  * 

"  While  dependent  on  the  Divine  contribution  for  success, 
I  must  say  that  I  feel  the  importance  too  of  no  ingredient 
in  the  human  contribution  being  wanting.  On  this  ground  I 
desiderate  that  all  justice  should  be  done  to  our  undertaking, 
and  that  as  an  experiment  it  should  be  made  as  complete  as 
possible,  otherwise  the  instruction  given  by  it  will  be  imper- 
fect ;  whereas  even  from  its  failure  we  shall  learn  a  great  deal 
more  from  a  full  than  from  a  partial  operation.  I  therefore 
desiderate,  and  that  as  soon  as  may  be,  a  church  not  only 
within  the  locality,  but,  agreeably  to  your  own  view,  as  much 
in  the  view  of  the  families  as  possible.  I  look  on  the  present 
steady  attendance,  say  of  80  or  100,  in  the  present  disadvan- 
tageous circumstances,  as  a  sufficient  nucleus,  under  God,  for 
a  future  congregation.  And  what  should  reconcile  us  all  to 
this  step  is,  that  even  though  the  worst  should  come  to  the 
worst,  though  the  local  preference  should  not  give  us  a  full 
local  congregation  for  years  together,  we  can,  after  giving  it 
a  local  constitution,  that  is,  securing  the  offer  of  all  vacant 
sittings  in  the  first  instance  to  the  people  of  the  West  Port — 
we  can,  at  each  seat-letting,  hold  out  the  room  not  disposed 
of  to  the  public  at  large  ;  so  that,  after  having  done  all  for 


402  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

a  local,  we  have  still  the  same  resource  that  is  had  in  all 
other  churches  for  supplementing  the  deficiency  from  our  first 
aim,  by  means  of  a  general  congregation.  The  sooner  the 
operation  is  expedited  the  better  for  me,  who  am  getting  on 
in  life  ;  and  I  desire,  whatever  may  be  the  result,  to  take  the 
instruction  of  it  with  all  the  calmness  both  of  a  philosopher 
and  a  Christian,  viewing  it  in.  one  light  as  the  lesson  of  ex- 
perience, and  in  another,  as  the  lesson  which  God  pleases 
to  give  me,  whether  to  humble  or  to  gratify  me  before  I  die. 
Ever  believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  most  cordially, 

'-  Thomas  Chalmer.s." 

The  prospect  of  a  speedy  and  remarkable  triumph  bright- 
ened before  Dr.  Chalmers  as  the  year  1846  progressed. 
Visible  success  cheered  on  the  various  agents,  and  their  ef- 
forts were  multiplied  as  the  fair  and  pleasant  fruits  of  them 
ripened  under  their  eye.  The  liberality  of  many  Christian 
friends  supplied  Dr.  Chalmers  with  funds  sufficient  not  only 
to  build  a  church  and  school-room,  but  to  purchase  and  fit 
up  a  tenement  of  houses  as  model  houses  for  working-men, 
in  which,  at  a  low  rent,  additional  means  of  cleanliness  and 
comfort  were  enjoyed.  It  was  in  a  tone,  therefore,  of  rising 
confidence  that,  while  the  church  was  building,  he  issued 
his  last  circular. — "  We  have  long  thought,"  he  said,  "  that 
the  failure  of  every  former  attempt  to  reclaim  the  masses  of 
our  population  is  due  to  the  insufficiency  of  the  means  which 
have  been  brought  to  bear  upon  them  ;  and  while  deeply 
sensible  that  means  alone  will  prove  of  no  effect  without  the 
blessing  from  on  high  on  the  devotedness  and  the  conscien- 
tious labors  of  those  into  whose  hands  they  are  intrusted, 
yet  we  hold  it  irrational  to  look  for  any  great  or  sensible  re- 
sult with  so  slender  an  apparatus  as  that  of  Sabbath-schools, 
and  prayer  meetings,  and  rare  occasional  visits  from  house 
to  house,  under  the  conduct,  it  may  be,  of  a  few  missionaries 
for  the  whole  of  a  large  town — each  sinking  under  the  weight 
of  the  many  thousands  who  have  been  committed  to  his  care  ; 


;ET.  65.  THE  WEST  PORT.  403 

and  dispirited  by  the  want  of  any  such  visible  fruit  as  might 
serve  to  satisfy  both  himself  and  his  employers  that  his  efforts 
are  not  wholly  dissipated  or  lost,  to  all  observation  at  least, 
in  that  mighty  aggregate  of  human  beings  wherewith  he  has 
to  deal. 

"It  is  under  this  conviction  that  we  have  long  advocated 
the  concentration  of  commensurate  efforts  and  means  on  a 
small  enough  territory.  What  can  not  be  done  in  bulk, 
and  all  at  once,  let  us  try  in  separate  portions — each  within 
the  compass  of  such  an  agency  as  would  form  a  sufficient 
eldership  and  set  of  office-bearers  for  an  ordinary  congrega- 
tion. We  are  aware  of  the  ridicule  that  has  been  poured 
in  other  departments,  whether  of  politics  or  philanthropy, 
on  the  process  of  what  has  been  termed  a  bit  and  bit  reform. 
But  let  us  ascertain  whether  this  bit  and  bit  process  be  not, 
after  all,  the  only  one  that  is  suited  to  the  real  mediocrity  of 
the  human  powers. 

"  The  very  essence  of  our  scheme  lies  in  the  thorough  op- 
eration of  what  we  have  called  the  territorial  principle.  We 
limit  our  attention  to  a  single  district  or  locality,  itself  split 
into  sub-districts,  having  each  a  Christian  agent  attached  to 
it ;  so  that  not  a  home  or  family  which  might  not  be  fre- 
quently and  habitually  visited  by  one  having  the  charge  of 
not  more,  if  possible,  than  twenty  households.  By  this  busy 
internal  missionary  process,  a  vast  amount  of  direct  good 
might  be  done,  even  were  there  nothing  more  than  a  kindly 
influential  converse,  all,  of  course,  on  the  side  of  morality  and 
religion  and  a  better  economics,  than  now  prevails  through- 
out the  population.  But  one  of  the  main  benefits  of  such  a 
system  as  this  is,  that  it  might  be  made  to  act  so  powerfully 
as  a  recruiting  process  both  for  church  and  schools,  as  at 
length  to  terminate  in  a  parochial  economy  of  a  power  and 
character  so  pervading  that  each  child  shall  receive  a  whole- 
some education,  and  at  the  sound  of  their  own  Sabbath-bell 
nearly  each  house  may  be  seen  to  pour  forth  its  family  of 
worshipers.      We  are  sensible  that  even  though  this  were 


404  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

to  take  effect,  it  would  yield  nothing  more  than  but  a  re- 
claimed portion  of  the  whole  territory.  But  if  the  hundreds 
of  Christian  philanthropists  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  and 
the  thousands  in  London,  were  in  little  separate  bands  to  se- 
lect their  respective  localities  and  do  the  same  thing,  a  single 
decade  of  years  might  not  pass  away  without  our  being  land- 
ed in  the  blessed  result  of  a  better  and  happier  generation." 

On  Friday  the  19th  February,  1847,  the  West  Port 
Church  was  opened  for  public  worship  by  Dr.  Chalmers,  and 
on  the  25th  April,  he  presided  at  the  first  sacrament  admin- 
istered within  its  walls.  On  the  following  Monday,  he  said 
to  Mr.  Tasker — "  I  have  got  now  the  desire  of  my  heart — 
the  church  is  finished,  the  schools  are  flourishing,  our  eccle- 
siastical machinery  is  about  complete,  and  all  in  good  work- 
ing order.  God  has  indeed  heard  my  prayer,  and  I  could 
now  lay  down  my  head  in  peace  and  die."  On  Tuesday 
the  27th,  he  wrote  thus  to  Mr.  Lennox  : — "I  wish  to  com- 
municate what  to  me  is  the  most  joyful  event  of  my  life.  I 
have  been  intent  for  thirty  years  on  the  completion  of  a  ter- 
ritorial experiment,  and  I  have  now  to  bless  God  for  the 
consummation  of  it.  Our  church  was  opened  on  the  1 9th  of 
February,  and  in  one  month  my  anxieties  respecting  an  at- 
tendance have  been  set  at  rest.  Five-sixths  of  the  sittings 
have  been  let ;  but  the  best  part  of  it  is,  that  three-fourths 
of  these  are  from  the  West  Port,  a  locality  which,  two  years 
ago,  had  not  one  in  ten  church-goers  from  the  whole  popula- 
tion. I  presided  myself,  on  Sabbath  last,  over  its  first  sacra- 
ment. There  were  132  communicants,  and  100  of  them 
from  the  West  Port." 

Scarcely  more  than  two  years  had  elapsed,  yet  how  great 
was  the  transformation.  When  the  work  began,  the  number 
attending  all  places  of  worship  did  not  exceed  one-eighth  of 
the  whole  population  of  the  West  Port.  In  the  new  church 
300  sittings  were  taken  as  soon  as  it  was  opened  ;  and  of 
the  100  communicants  from  the  district  who  sat  down  at 
the  first  communion,  there  were  so  many  as  eighty  (some  far 


^T.  65.  THE  WEST  PORT.  405 

advanced  in  life)  who  had  never  communicated  in  their  Hves 
before,  or  so  long  ago  that  they  had  wholly  forgotten  the 
nature  and  objects  of  the  ordinance.  When  the  work  began, 
of  those  capable  of  education  three-fourths  were  not  at  school ; 
already  the  ratio  had  been  reversed,  and  three-fourths  were 
in  regular  attendance.  Many  of  these  children  were  of  the 
poorest  class,  yet  school-fees,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to 
upward  of  X70  per  annum,  had  been  cheerfully  and  grate- 
fully paid  by  their  parents.  The  change  was  beginning  to 
show  itself  even  in  the  outward  appearance  of  the  district — 
in  the  increased  cleanliness  and  tidiness  of  the  children* — in 
quieter  Saturday  nights,  and  more  orderly  Sabbaths.     Many 

*  We  have  upward  of  a  hundred  girls  at  this  school,  and  I  have 
no  recollection  of  any  thing  so  sudden,  so  much  per  salluni,  as  the 
transition  in  the  aspect  of  these  girls,  from  the  time  of  their  first  rag- 
gedness,  as  they  were  found  running  about  the  streets  in  that  destitute 
locality,  to  the  personal  cleanliness  and  respectability  which  they  now 
exhibit.  Their  appearance,  indeed,  is  altogether  delightful. — The 
boys.  I  may  state,  have  not  made  so  large  an  advance  as  the  girls  in 
point  of  appearance ;  but  altogether  the  schools  present  a  most  attract- 
ive and  delightful  spectacle.  I  have  been  told  that  a  number  of  the 
plebeian  schools  in  our  city  have  been  abandoned  by  female  visitors,  in 
virtue  of  want  of  personal  cleanliness.  By  the  use  of  baths,  this  want 
is  counteracted.  The  truth  is,  that  there  is  nothing  like  going  thor- 
oughly to  work  ;  w^e  even  take  cognizance  of  the  hair-cutting,  as  far 
as  the  boys  are  concerned.  We  have  made  a  bargain — I  don't  know 
that  it  is  a  very  cheap  one — but  we  got  a  hair-dresser  to  clip  the  boys' 
heads  at  eighteenpence  a  dozen,  which  is  at  the  rate  of  three-halfpence 
a  head.  I  can  just  say  this  much,  that  I  am  sure  that  the  ruder  and 
rawer  the  material  is,  out  of  which  finished  goods  are  worked,  the 
greater  is  the  triumph  of  the  manufacturing  art :  and  in  this  point  of 
view  I  would  consider  it  a  most  attractive  and  inviting  circumstance, 
w^hen  we  recollect  that  these  poor  people  have  all  the  capacities  of 
human  spirits — that  they  have  talents — that  they  have  imperishable 
souls — that  they  are  on  a  full  level  of  equality  with  ourselves  in  all 
that  is  essential  to  man — and  that  we  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  go 
and  do  them  justice,  and  to  give  up  the  shameful  neglect  which  we 
have  indulged  toward  the  lower  classes  for  half  a  century,  I  would 
say  for  almost  a  whole  century;  and  it  is  not  to  be  told  to  what 
height  of  advancement,  morally,  intellectually,  and  economically,  they 
are  capable  of  beings  raised." 


406  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

moral  and  physical  agencies  still  existed  which  wrought 
powerfully  against  the  attempted  reformation.  More  than 
twenty  dram-shops  in  that  single  district  hung  out  their  in- 
vitation to  debauchery,  while  fetid  nests  of  filth  and  vice  lay 
festering  in  many  a  close.  There  was  something  to  be  done 
here  which  the  public  authorities  alone  could  do,  and  which 
Dr.  Chalmers  urged  them  in  vain  to  undertake. — "  I  would 
again  implore  the  aid  of  the  authorities  for  the  removal  of 
all  those  moral,  and  the  aid  of  the  Sanitary  Board  for  the 
removal  of  all  those  physical  nuisances  and  discomforts  which 
are  found  to  exist  within  the  limits  of  a  territory  so  full  of 
misery  and  vice  at  present,  yet  so  full  of  promise  for  the 
future.  Could  I  gain  this  help  from  our  men  in  power,  and 
this  co-operation  from  the  Board  of  Health,  then,  with  the 
virtue  which  lies  in  education,  and,  above  all,  the  hallowing 
influences  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  should  look,  though 
in  humble  dependence  on  the  indispensable  grace  from  on 
high,  for  such  a  result  as,  at  least  in  its  first  beginnings,  I 
could  interpret  into  the  streaks  and  dawnings  of  a  better  day 
— when,  after  the  struggles  and  discomfitures  of  thirty  years, 
I  might  depart  in  peace,  and  leave  the  further  prosecution 
of  our  enterprise  with  comfort  and  calmness  in  the  hands 
of  another  generation." 

It  was  but  the  dawning  which  he  was  permitted  to  behold. 
A  few  weeks  after  that  first  communion  in  the  West  Port, 
he  was  removed  to  the  communion  of  the  heavens,  and  the 
work  was  left  in  other  hands.  There  were  some  who  thought 
that  his  removal  would  be  fatal  to  its  success  ;  and  that  it 
was  only  by  such  impulses  as  he  could  give,  that  such  an 
enterprise  could  be  sustained.  But  five  years  have  past 
since  he  was  at  his  head;  and,  under  the  admirable  manage- 
ment of  Mr.  Tasker,  each  year,  has  witnessed  an  advancing 
progress.  In  its  educational  department  the  work  is  com- 
plete. In  the  different  schools,  male  and  female,  day  and 
evening,  between  400  and  500  children  are  in  attendance; 
nor  is  it  knovjn  that  there  is  a  single  child  of  a  family 


JET.  65.  THE  WEST  PORT.  407 


resident  within  the  West  Port  who  is  not  at  school.  Of 
what  other  hke  district  in  this  country  could  the  same  be 
said,  and  by  what  other  instrumentality  could  it  have  been 
accomplished  ?  The  most  commodious  schoolroom  might 
have  been  built,  and  the  ablest  teacher  salaried,  and  the 
education  offered  gratis  to  all  the  families,  and  yet  hundreds 
of  these  children  have  remained  untaught.  It  was  the 
district  visiting,  and  the  zeal  especially  of  those  ladies  by 
whom  a  special  oversight  of  the  children's  regular  attendance 
at  school  was  undertaken,  by  which  this  great  achievement 
has  mainly  been  accomplished.  The  ecclesiastical  depart- 
ment presents  us  with  a  no  less  gratifying  result.  The  habit 
of  church  attendance  has  become  as  general  and  regular  with- 
in the  West  Port  as  it  is  in  the  best  conditioned  districts  of 
Edinburgh.  The  church  is  filled  to  overflowing,  and,  while 
these  pages  are  passing  through  the  press,  the  people  of  the 
West  Port,  who  among  themselves  contributed  no  less  than 
£100  to  the  building  of  their  church  at  first,  are  contrib- 
uting, at  an  equal  rate  of  liberality,  for  the  erection  of  a 
gallery.  It  was  Dr.  Chalmers's  conviction  that  in  the  worst 
localities  the  means  existed,  and  could  be  evoked,  by  which 
an  effective  gospel  ministry,  if  once  created,  could  afterward 
be  sustained  ;  and  the  history  of  the  West  Port  confirms 
that  conviction.  The  ecclesiastical  machinery  is  now  com- 
plete, and  were  it  separated  from  the  rest  it  could  be  main- 
tained in  all  its  present  efficiency  by  the  freewill  offerings  of 
the  people  themselves.  During  the  last  year,  besides  meet- 
ing all  the  expenses  necessary  for  the  due  support  of  Christian 
ordinances,  amounting  to  nearly  £250,  the  West  Port  con- 
gregation has  contributed  £70  to  missionary  and  educational 
objects.*  Nor  has  the  cost  been  great  at  which  all  this  has 
been  effected.  A  site  has  been  purchased,  a  church,  seated 
for  520,  has  been  erected,  commodious  schoolrooms  have 
been  built  and  furnished,  a  large  adjoining  tenement  has  been 
bought  and  fitted  up,  the  minister's  and  the  schoolmaster's, 
*  For  the  last  Annual  Balance-Sheet,  see  Appendix,  G. 


408  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

and  the  schoolmistress's  salaries  have  been  paid,  and  all 
incidental  expenses  discharged,  during  seven  years  and  a 
half,  for  less  than  £5500. 

At  the  same  cost,  among  the  same  class,  within  the  same 
limits,  and  during  the  same  time,  there  never  have  been  ac- 
complished in  this  or  any  other  land  any  thing  like  the  same 
educational  and  spiritual  results.  It  stands  the  only  instance 
in  which  the  depths  of  city  ignorance  and  vice  have  been 
sounded  to  the  very  bottom  ;  nor  can  the  possibihty  of 
cleansing  the  foul  basement-story  of  our  social  edifice  be  doubt- 
ed any  longer.  How  the  spirit  of  the  departed  would  have 
rejoiced  had  he  lived  to  witness  what  the  West  Port  now 
presents  ;  and  how  gladly  would  he  have  hailed  every  token 
that  the  lessons  given  forth  thereby  were  not  likely  to  be 
lost  !*  We  have  dwelt  the  longer  upon  it  because  we  know 
how  willingly  he  would  have  seen  eveiy  other  thought  of 
his  heart  and  every  other  work  of  his  hands  perish  from  the 
remembrance  of  his  fellows,  if  only  the  guiding  light  were 
followed  which  this  example  furnished  as  to  the  best  method 
of  raising  the  sunk  millions  of  our  fellow-countrymen  to  a 
higher  level  of  character  and  comfort  on  earth,  and  preparing 
them  for  "  glory,  honor,  and  immortality"  hereafter. 

*  It  is  with  the  greatest  pleasure  that  we  have  noticed  two  recent 
articles  in  the  Christian  Journal  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church, 
containing  an  account  of  the  operations  in  the  West  Port,  and  strongly 
recommending  the  territorial  principle  upon  which  they  have  been  con- 
ducted. 


CHAPTER  XXIL 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  ALTERING  THE  CURRICULUM  IN 
THE  SCOTTISH  UNIVERSITIES— THE  COURSE  OF  THE- 
OLOGICAL EDUCATION— DR.  CHALMERS'S  PROFES- 
SORIAL  CAREER— APPOINTMENT  AS  PRINCIPAL  IN 
THE  NEW  COLLEGE— INSTITUTES  OF  THEOLOGY— 
THE  NORTH  BRITISH  REVIEW— THE  GERMAN  PHI- 
LOSOPHY—THE FAMINE. 

Dr.  Chalmers's  attention  had  been  early  directed  to  the 
course  of  education  pursued  in  the  Scottish  Universities,  to 
the  defects  attached  to  it,  and  the  improvements  of  which 
it  was  capable.  In  the  year  1828,  during  his  examination 
before  the  Commissioners  appointed  to  visit  the  Universities 
of  Scotland,  he  suggested  that  the  first  Latin  and  Greek 
classes,  in  which  the  elements  of  those  languages  were  taught, 
should  be  abolished,  as  suited  rather  for  a  school  than  for  a 
college  ;    and  that,  by  the  establishment  of  gymnasia*  and 

*  '^  Edinburgh,  April  22d,  1 846. — Dear  Sir — I  have  now  read  your 
Pamphlet,  and  with  high  approbation  of  its  general  views.  I  like  in 
pai'ticular  your  strong  recommendation  of  gymnasia.  Such  is  my  con- 
ception of  their  usefulness  that  I  think  they  might  do  even  more  than 
prepare  for  the  literary  and  philosophical  classes  of  our  Universities. 
I  think  they  might  prepare  for  an  immediate  entry  on  all  the  studies 
of  the  learned  professions,  whether  theological,  or  legal,  or  medical. 
But  at  this  rate  would  they  not  supersede  our  Universities  altogether  ? 
I  think  they  ought  not ;  and  that  to  these  Universities  there  would  re- 
main the  high  function  of  elevating  the  literatui'e  and  science  of  our 
land,  purely  for  their  own  sakes,  and  apart  from  their  subserviency  to 
any  merely  professional  object.  What  a  glorious  country  it  would 
make,  if,  for  the  expense  of  some  £10,000  or  c£20,000  a  year  more, 
we  could  thus  get  our  Universities  placed  in  those  higher  regions  of 
philosophy  and  taste,  where  they  might  contribute  to  the  indefinite  ele- 
vation of  our  national  authorship  in  every  department,  whether  of  letters 
or  of  science !  These  hastv  sentences  represent  mv  views  very  im- 
TOL     IV S 


410  MExMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

a  strict  entrance  examination,  the  standard  of  qualification 
for  commencing  a  University  education  should  be  elevated. 
He  also  suggested  that  an  important  change  should  be  made 
in  the  order  of  the  Undergraduate  course.  According  to  the 
existing  arrangement,  Logic  and  Moral  Philosophy  occupy 
the  second  and  third  sessions  in  a  four  years'  curriculum  ; 
Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy  occupying  the  third 
and  fourth.  Upon  the  principle  that  the  mental  and  moral 
sciences  required  a  maturer  intelligence,  he  proposed  that  this 
order  should  be  reversed,  and  that  the  Moral  Philosophy  of 
the  Undergraduate  course  should  be  brought  thus  into  juxta- 
position with  the  Natural  Theology  of  the  Divinity  curricu- 
lum. Without  altering  the  place  already  given  to  Natural 
Philosophy,  the  Royal  Commissioners,  in  their  Report  of 
1830,  recommended  that  Moral  Philosophy  should  be  taught 
during  the  fourth  year  of  the  student's  attendance  at  College. 
But  this,  with  all  the  other  valuable  recommendations  of  that 
Report,  has  lain  for  years  unheeded,  so  as  to  make  one  wonder 
why  such  Commissions  were  appointed. 

Although  not  a  member  at  this  time  of  the  Theological 
Faculty,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  examined  also  as  to  the  course 
of  Theological  study.  In  St.  Andrews,  as  in  all  the  other 
Scottish  Colleges,  the  Theological  Faculty  consisted  of  three 
Professors — one  of  Divinity,  one  of  Hebrew  and  the  Oriental 
Languages,  and  one  of  Church  History.  The  course  lasted 
for  four  years,  attendance,  however,  being  only  imperative 
during  three  sessions.  There  fell  thus  into  the  hands  of  the 
Divinity  Professor,  to  be  treated  in  a  four  years'  course  of 
lectures,  the  whole  range  of  Natural  Theology,  the  Christian 
Evidences,  and  Systematic  and  Pastoral  Theology.      Inde- 

perfectly,  but  should  we  ever  have  the  opportunity  of  meeting,  I  should 
like  to  talk  more  at  large  with  you  upon  the  subject.  Meanwhile,  I 
rejoice  in  your  having  advocated  a  high  system  of  preliminary  scholar- 
ship that  might  well  enable  us  all  to  take  up  higher  positions  in  our 
respective  territories. — I  am,  dear  Sir,  yours  respectfully, 

"Thomas  Chalmers. 
•'Professor  Blackie,  Aberdeen.'' 


MT.65.  THE  UiNIVERSITY  CURRICULUM.  411 

pendently  of  the  undue  amount  of  labor  thrown  thus  upon  a 
single  Professor,  it  was  obvious  that,  entering  as  they  did  at 
different  parts  of  the  course,  it  was  only  the  students  of  one 
Session  in  every  four  who  began  the  course  with  the  Pro- 
fessor and  followed  it  consecutively  to  its  close.  And  the  few 
students  who  might  have  enjoyed  it  were  deprived  even  of 
this  benefit,  by  the  prevalent  habit  of  attending  only  during 
three  sessions,  and  interposing  the  session  of  absence  at  differ- 
ent points  in  Ihe  curriculum.  In  a  scheme  of  Theological  Edu- 
cation which  he  drew  up  and  presented  to  the  Commissioners, 
Dr.  Chalmers  suggested  that  if  not  five,  as  he  would  have  de- 
sired, there  should  be  at  least  four  Professors  in  the  Theological 
Faculty ;  and  that  there  should  be  two  Professors  of  Divinity, 
the  junior  to  teach  two  classes  each  day,  and  the  senior  to  do 
the  same  ;  so  that,  enter  when  he  might,  the  student  should 
be  carried  regularly  forward,  and  the  subjects  be  presented 
in  a  consecutive  order.  Upon  this  subject  the  Commissioners 
satisfied  themselves  with  advising  that  a  new  Professorship 
of  Biblical  Criticism  should  be  instituted  at  the  different  Uni- 
versities— an  advice  which  waits  till  some  Government  shall 
be  patriotic  enough  to  execute  it.  Upon  his  own  appointment 
to  the  chair  of  Theology  in  Edinburgh,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  fully 
exposed  to  the  disadvantages  which  the  existing  arrangements 
entailed  upon  the  Professor,  nor  were  all  the  efforts  which 
he  made  to  extricate  hinlself  *  sufficient  to  yield  any  thing 

*  In  answer  to  an  inquiry  made  by  a  member  of  one  of  the  English 
"Universities,  Dr.  Chalmers  gave  the  following  account  of  the  manner 
in  which  his  classes  were  conducted  : 

"  The  Professor  of  Theology,  Dr.  Chalmers,  teaches  two  classes,  a 
junior  and  senior.  The  junior  class  commences  on  Tuesday  the  12th 
of  November,  and  its  hour  of  meeting  is  two  o'clock.  This  class  is 
attended  by  all  the  professional  students,  or  students  of  divinity,  at  the 
beginning  of  their  course ;  and  the  following  account  of  its  topics  of 
lectureship  will  serve  to  show  why,  of  the  two  classes,  it  is  the  most 
adapted  to  the  demand  and  convenience  of  those  gentlemen  who,  not 
of  the  ecclesiastical  profession,  wish  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
grounds  or  evidences  of  the  Christian  faith. 

"  The  general  object  of  this  class  is  to  demonstrate  the  evidences 


412  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

like  content.  Could  he  have  satisfied  himself  with  drawing 
up  a  four  years'  course  of  lectures,  to  be  repeated  again  and 
again  as  the  four  j^ears'  curriculum  came  round,  he  might 

of  natural  and  revealed  religion,  which  is  done  in  a  series  of  lectures 
delivered  from  the  Chair  on  the  three  first  days  of  every  week.  The 
lectures  on  Natural  Theology  take  up  nearly  half  the  Session,  and  are 
succeeded  by  lectures  on  the  historical  and  internal  evidences  for  the 
truth  of  Christianity;  and  the  course  is  concluded  by  lectures  on  the 
inspiration  of  Scripture,  with  a  general  view  of  Scripture'Criticism  and 
Sj^stematic  Theolog}'. 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  the  main  design  of  this  class  is  to  establish  the 
credentials  of  Revelation,  or  to  unfold  the  grounds  on  which  the  Bible 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  genuine  record  of  a  genuine  communica- 
tion from  heaven  to  earth.  It  is  for  this  special  reason,  that  an  attend- 
ance on  this  class  is  recommended  to  the  general  or  extra-professional 
students,  while  it  is  only  imperative  on  those  who  are  destined  for  the 
clerical  profession.  By  opening  this  part  of  theological  education  to  all 
sorts  of  students,  we  approximate  to  the  academic  system  of  England, 
in  which  sacred  is  blended,  to  a  certain  extent,  with  general  literature. 

"  Two  days  of  the  week  are  occupied  with  lectures,  both  written 
and  extemporaneous,  on  the  various  topics  of  a  text- book,  which  gives 
the  Professor  an  opportunity  for  entering  with  greater  minuteness  and 
familiarity  into  the  details  of  the  Christian  argument;  it  is  in  this  part 
of  the  course  that  the  students  are  most  subjected  to  examination.  It 
is  the  practice  to  examine  all  the  professional  students,  and  only  those 
of  the  general  students  who  express  a  wish  for  it.  The  text-book  for 
the  ensuing  Session  is  '  Butler's  Analogy.' 

"  The  senior  class  of  Theology  commences  on  Tuesday  the  12th  of 
November  at  eleven  o'clock ;  it  receives  tRe  appellation  of  Senior  from 
the  circumstance  of  its  being  attended  by  those  professional  students 
who  have  advanced  beyond  the  first  year  of  their  attendance  on  the 
Divinity  Hall,  as  the  attendance  of  regular  students  generally  lasts  four 
years.  The  course  of  lectures  in  the  senior  class,  in  accommodation 
to  this  practice,  is  completed  in  three  years  ;  comprising,  therefore,  the 
instructions  which  are  proper  to  the  divinity  students  of  the  second, 
third,  and  fourth  year's  standing.  This  class  is  attended  by  a  large 
proportion  of  general  students,  notwithstanding  the  inconvenience  to 
them  of  their  receiving  by  one  year's  attendance  only  a  fraction  of  its 
course  ;  and  notwithstanding  a  still  greater  inconvenience,  that  for  two 
sessions  out  of  the  three,  instead  of  beginning  with  the  commencement 
of  this  senior  lectureship,  they  have  to  begin  with  the  ulterior  parts 
of  it. 

"  The  object  of  the  senior  class,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the 


^T.  65.  PROFESSORIAL  CAREER.  413 

have  earned  for  himself  the  same  ease  and  comfort  with  which 
the  duties  of  his  Chair  had  been  discharged  by  ordinary  and 
inferior  men.  But  he  could  not  confine  himself  within  such 
limits.  Upon  some  of  the  great  topics  in  Natural  Theology 
and  the  Christian  Evidences,  he  had  original  and  valuable 
contributions  to  offer,  which,  after  first  offering  them  to  his 
students  in  a  course  of  lectures,  he  lost  no  time  in  presenting 
to  the  public.  His  early  professorial  career  at  Edinburgh 
resembled  that  of  those  German  professors  who  pass  so  fre- 
quently through  the  press  the  lectures  of  the  preceding  year, 
entailing  thus  upon  themselves  a  new  burden  of  composition 
for  the  future.  Subjects,  besides,  were  constantly  occurring 
to  Dr.  Chalmers  of  a  character  somewhat  extraneous  to 
the  proper  topics  of  his  course,  upon  which  a  brief  set  of 
lectures  were  drawn  up  and  delivered  to  his  students,  The 
result  of  the  whole,  while  impairing  the  orderly  treatment  of 
the  common  heads  of  Divinity,  was  eminently  favorable  to 
that  freshness  and  force  of  impulse  which  it  was  his  great 
distinction  as  a  teacher  to  communicate.  He  who  studies  at- 
tentively the  first  four  volumes  of  the  one,  and  the  last  three 
volumes  of  the  other  series  of  his  Works,  will  not  readily 
believe,  that  even  in  respect  of  the  amount  and  variety  of 
information  communicated  to  them,  the  students  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers fared  worse  than  others  ;  but  it  was  not  here  that  his 
power  and  glory  lay,  as  the  greatest  teacher  of  Theology  our 
country  has  ever  seen.  Others  have  amassed  larger  stores 
of  learning,  and  conveyed  them  to  their  students  in  more  com- 
prehensive and  compendious  forms.    But  who  ever  lit  up  the 

junior,  is  to  expound  not  the  credentials,  but  the  contents  of  the  Chris- 
tian message  ;  or,  if  the  business  of  the  junior  is  to  establish  the  truth 
in  opposition  to  all  infidelity,  the  business  of  the  senior  is  to  establish 
the  truth  in  opposition  to  all  heresy ;  its  main  topie  is  the  subject-mat- 
ter of  the  Christian  Theology,  and  it  should  conclude  with  a  series  of 
lectures  on  the  duties  of  the  ministry  and  of  the  pastoral  cure." 

The  reader  is  referred  to  the  ninth  volume  of  the  '  Posthumous  Works' 
for  information  as  to  the  text-books  used  in  the  Theological  Classes,  and 
the  manner  in  which  they  were  employed. 


414  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMKRS.  1845. 

evidences  and  truths  of  Christianity  M^ith  a  light  so  attractive  ; 
and  who  ever  filled  the  youthful  breasts  of  those  who  were 
afterward  to  occupy  the  pulpits  of  the  land,  with  the  fire  of 
so  generous  and  so  devoted  an  enthusiasm  I  His  professorial 
career  had  lasted  for  twenty  years  when  the  Disruption  oc- 
curred. Even  at  that  time  he  could  travel,  he  said,  from 
one  end  of  Scotland  to  the  other,  and  spend  each  night  in 
the  manse  of  one  of  his  former  pupils  ;  and  if  the  growing 
majorities  in  the  General  Assembly  by  which  that  event  was 
preceded  were  analyzed,  it  would  appear  that  nine-tenths 
at  least  of  those  who  had  listened  to  his  fervid  prelections 
in  the  University,  counted  it  an  honor  to  stand  by  the  side 
of  their  venerated  instructor  when  the  hour  of  trial  came. 
Immediately  after  the  Disruption,  Dr.  Chalmers  resigned 
his  Chair  at  the  University,  and  accepted  the  appointment 
of  Principal  and  Primarius  Professor  of  Divinity  in  whatever 
collegiate  institution  the  Free  Church  might  be  able  to  erect. 
Strongly  convinced  that  with  the  slender  attractions  which 
its  unendowed  and  under-paid  offices  held  out,  the  future  min- 
istry of  the  Free  Church  could  alone  maintain  its  position  in 
the  country  by  the  superior  scholarship  and  deeper  piety 
of  its  ministers,  he  gave  an  increased  measure  both  of  time 
and  care  to  the  duties  of  his  professorship  ;  and  after  the  ex- 
perience of  three  sessions  he  had  this  hopeful  testimony  to  bear  : 
"  The  convener  of  your  Committee  has  the  satisfaction  of  bear- 
ing witness,  and  this  after  the  experience  of  eighteen  winters 
as  a  Professor  of  Theology,  and  five  more  as  the  occupier 
of  a  previous  chair,  that  his  class  of  last  session  stands  the 
highest  in  his  estimation  of  all  which  have  preceded  it,  if 
not  in  its  superior  number  of  eminent  and  distinguished  stu- 
dents who  stand  above  the  level  of  their  fellows,  in  what  is 
far  better — a  more  elevated  table-land  of  general  proficiency 
and  good  scholarship.  But  it  is  of  greatly  surpassing  moment 
that  we  should  have  to  report  an  obvious  increase,  from  year 
to  year,  in  their  sense  of  things  sacred,  and  devotedness  of 
heart  and  spirit  to  the  great  objects  of  the  Christian  ministry." 


iET.  65.  PROFESSORIAL  CAREER.  415 

In  the  hope  of  contributing  to  this  increase,  during  his  last 
collegiate  sessions  Dr.  Chalmers  was  in  the  habit  of  inviting 
his  students  to  private  interviews,  devoted  wholly  to  conver- 
sation relative  to  their  own  spiritual  condition  and  prayer. 
In  the  General  Assembly  of  1844,  the  Moderator,  Dr. 
Grey  of  Edinburgh,  was  singularly  felicitous  in  returning 
the  thanks  of  the  Church  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  for  the  valuable 
services  which  he  had  rendered  to  it.  "We  are  all  aware," 
he  said,  in  closing  his  address,  "of  the  important  and  directly 
spiritual  duties  which  you  fulfill  in  training  up  the  future 
teachers  of  Israel,  and  in  your  manifold  labors  as  a  minister 
of  Christ ;  but  even  in  the  department  of  finance  we  feel 
that  your  services  are  invaluable,  as  clearly  and  directly  sub- 
servient to  the  maintenance  and  extension  of  true  religion  in 
the  land.  Sir,  we  duly  appreciate  the  self-denying,  generous 
zeal,  which  makes  you  willing,  at  the  present  stage  of  your 
valuable  and  fruitful  life,  to  continue  to  labor  in  the  service 
of  a  Church  which,  if  dear  to  you,  holds  you  also  most  dear 
to  her — granted  her  by  a  gracious  Providence  as  her  orna- 
ment and  guide.  In  the  review  of  our  noble  controversy, 
the  words  of  Milton,  in  a  sonnet  addressed  to  Sir  Henry 
Vane  the  younger,  occur  to  me  as  so  applicable,  that  I  trust 
you.  Sir,  and  the  Assembly,  will  excuse  me  if  I  conclude 
with  them.  After  mentioning  other  high  qualities  and  at- 
tainments, he  adds — 

'  Both  spiritual  power^  and  civil,  ivhat  each  means, 
What  severs  each,  thou  hast  learned,  which  few  have  done, 
The  bounds  of  either  sword  to  thee  w^e  owe. 
Therefore  on  thy  firm  hand  religion  leans 
In  peace,  and  reckons  thee  her  oldest  son.' " 

"I  can  only  ascribe,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers  in  reply  "these 
high  eulogiums  to  my  having  long  held  a  principle  which  I 
should  like  to  see  carried  into  efTect  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  Church's  business — I  mean  the  principle  of  division  of 
employment.  I  should  like  to  see  that  principle  made  per- 
manently applicable  to  the  management  of  our  whole  eccle- 


416  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS  1845. 

siastical  affairs.  So  sacred  is  my  respect  for  this  principle, 
and,  I  trust,  also  my  observance  of  it,  that  all  the  time  and 
strength  which  I  have  been  able  to  sj)are,  have  been  given 
to  the  labor  of  but  one  department  of  the  Church's  service  ; 
and  I  trust,  from  experience,  and  am  in  some  measure  confi- 
dent, that  the  little,  or  rather  no  part  I  have  taken  in  other, 
and  perhaps  more  important  duties  of  the  Church,  has  been 
of  more  avail  than  if  I  had  meddled  with  them  all.  I  knew 
that  these  were  in  other  hands,  and  I  wished  to  allow  them 
to  get  the  full  benefit  of  the  same  principle.  Even  although 
I  was  at  the  head  of  the  academical  department  of  the  Free 
Church,  I  have  not  attended  a  single  meeting  of  the  Educa- 
tional Committee.  This  may  seem  odd,  and  incongruous 
with  my  situation,  as  at  the  head  of  our  Theological  Faculty ; 
but  it  is  because  I  would  infinitely  rather  be  satisfied  with 
doing  a  single  task  well — with  being  an  efficient  doer  in  one 
thing,  than  being  a  dabbler  universal  in  every  thing." 

For  some  time  after  the  Disruption,  the  general  superin- 
tendence of  the  collegiate  and  educational  departments  of  the 
Free  Church  devolved  upon  Dr.  Welsh,  and  Dr.  Chalmers 
took  little  share  in  their  management — his  class  duties,  and 
the  oversight  of  the  Sustentation  Associations,  engrossing  his 
attention.  An  event,  however,  soon  afterward  occurred 
which  modified  his  conduct  in  this  respeet.  In  the  spring  of 
1845,  the  Free  Church  lost  one  of  her  brightest  ornaments. 
"  I  dare  not,"  said  Dr.  Chalmers,  in  alluding  to  the  event, 
"incur  the  hazard  of  exciting  the  pathos  and  profound  regrets 
of  this  assembly  by  saying  all  I  might  on  the  bereavement 
which  a  mysterious  though  all-wise  Providence  has  been 
pleased  to  inflict  upon  us  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Welsh.  This 
institute,  of  which  he  was  so  distinguished  a  member,  will 
ever  associate  with  his  memory  a  sense  of  grateful  obligation 
for  high  services.  The  College  fabric  now  on  the  eve  of  its 
commencement,  and  to  which,  I  might  add,  our  choice  and 
rapidly  increasing,  and  even  already  our  well-stored  library, 
inin-ht  be  regarded  as  all  his  own.      And  beyond  the  circle 


JET.  65.  TRIBUTE  TO  DR.  WELSH'S  MEMORY.  417 


of  our  Free  Church,  there  must  be  the  general  feeling  of  a 
heavy,  loss,  in  that  he  was  arrested  on  a  most  promising 
career  of  authorship,  when  engaged  in  supplying  what  migh°t 
well  be  termed  a  great  desideratum  in  British  literature"  a 
good  Church  History.  His  first  volume,  all  that  was  pub- 
lished  before  his  death,  will  ever  abide  a  standing  monument 
to  the  erudition,  and  classic  taste,  and  scholarlike  accom- 
plishments of  its  author.  Would  to  God  that  the  lesson  of 
mortality  given  forth  by  so  near  and  affecting  an  example 
of  It— that  lesson  which  of  all  others  is  the  the  oftenest  re- 
peated, yet  the  soonest  and  the  oftenest  forgotten were  to 

tell  with  all  the  force  and  feeling  which  it  ought  on  the 
hearts  of  survivors,  more  especially  on  those  survivors  who, 
years  before  him  in  the  journey  of  life,  are  now  pressing  hard 
on  the  confines  of  both  worlds,  on  the  twilight  of  their  e'arthly 
existence,  and  on  the  dawn  of  their  eternity." 

It  was  a  large  debt  under  which  Dr.  Welsh  laid  the  Free 
Church  by  providing  the  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  new 
College  in  Edinburgh.  In  the  midst  of  great  pecuniary 
sacrifices  required  for  other  and  more  pressing  necessities,  it 
was  one  of  the  noblest  offerings  which  Christian  generosity 
presented,  when  at  his  solicitation  twenty  individuals  came 
forward  and  gave  each  £1000  to  effect  this  object.  At  the 
close  of  the  Assembly  of  1846,  the  foundation-stone  of  the 
edifice  was  laid  by  Dr.  Chalmers.  At  a  public  breakfast 
which  preceded  the  ceremony,  he  quoted  and  applied  to  him- 
self the  lines  of  Byron, 

"  I  am  not  what  I  have  been,  and  my  visions  flit 
Less  palpably  before  me" — 

but  there  was  no  sign  either  of  faded  sentiment  or  decaying 

power,   when,   after  the  triple  stroke  with  the  mallet  upon 

the  stone,  he  addressed  those  who  had  collected  at  the  spot, 

among  whom    were    a   considerable   number  of  operatives. 

Having  referred  first  to  the  great  objects  of  a  theological 

education,  «  It  delights  me,"  he  said,  "  to  observe  that  so 

many  of  the  working  classes  in  our  city  now  stand  within 


418  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

the  reach  of  my  voice.  Within  the  walls  now  to  be  raised 
by  their  hands  there  may  or  there  may  not  in  time  be  deliv- 
ered the  lessons  of  general  science.  But  from  the  very  out- 
set, we  hope,  there  will  be  the  lessons  of  that  higher  wisdom 
which  is  often  hid  from  the  wise  and  the  prudent,  and  re- 
vealed unto  babes.  We  leave  to  others  the  passions  and 
politics  of  this  world  ;  and  nothing  will  ever  be  taught,  I 
trust,  in  any  of  our  halls,  which  shall  have  the  remotest  ten- 
dency to  disturb  the  existing  order  of  things,  or  to  confound 
the  ranks  and  distinctions  which  at  present  obtain  in  society. 
But  there  is  one  equality  between  man  and  man  which  will 
strenuously  be  taught — the  essential  equality  of  human  souls ; 
and  that  in  the  high  count  and  reckoning  of  eternity,  the 
soul  of  the  poorest  of  nature's  children,  the  raggedest  boy 
that  runs  along  the  pavement,  is  of  like  estimation  in  the 
eyes  of  heaven  with  that  of  the  greatest  and  the  noblest  of 
our  land.  The  youth  who  frequent  our  classes  will  with  all 
earnestness  and  emphasis  be  told,  that  the  Christian  minister 
is  a  man  of  no  rank,  because  a  man  of  all  ranks  ;  and  that 
although  he  should  have  an  education  which  might  qualify 
him  for  holding  converse  with  princes  and  peers,  it  is  his 
peculiar  glory  to  be  a  frequent  visitant  of  the  poor  man's 
humble  cottage,  and  to  pray  by  the  poor  man's  dying  bed. 
Heaven  grant  that  the  platform  of  humble  life  may  be  raised 
immeasurably  higher  than  at  present,  and  through  the  whole 
extent  of  it — that  the  mighty  host  who  swarm  upon  its 
surface,  brought  under  the  elevating  power  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  so  rescued  from  groveling  ignorance  and 
loathsome  dissipation,  may  rise  to  a  full  equality  with  our- 
selves in  all  that  is  characteristic  of  humanity,  and  take 
place  along  with  us,  side  by  side,  on  the  footing  of  kindred 
and  companionable  men.  Let  kings  retain  their  sceptres,  and 
nobles  their  coronets,  what  we  want  is  a  more  elevated  ground- 
floor  for  our  general  population,  and  this  without  derange- 
ment to  the  upper  stories  of  the  social  and  political  edifice 
— where  may  our  beloved  Queen,  God  bless  her,  long  retain 


JET.  65.  INSTITUTES  OF  TH  EOLOGY, 


419 


upon  its  summit  the  place  of  gracefulness  and  glory  which  she 
now  occupies.  The  beauteous  structure  behind  us,  and 
which  bears  her  name,  will  not  injure,  but  illustrate  our 
humbler  fabric — not  humbler,  we  think,  in  respect  of  its 
tasteful  and  becoming  architecture,  but  as  rising  from  a 
lowlier  platform — whence  let  us  close  the  ceremonial  of  the 
day  by  the  acclamations  of  honest  and  deep-felt  loyalty,  with 
thanks  to  heaven  for  the  many  preservations  which  a  merci- 
ful Providence  has  awarded  to  our  good  Queen  Victoria." 

In  consequence  of  Dr.  V/elsh's  most  lamented  death,  Dr. 
Chalmers  accepted  the  convenership  of  the  College  Commit- 
tee, which  he  was  the  readier  to  do,  as,  owing  to  recent  cir- 
cumstances, he  stood  relieved,  to  a  great  extent,  of  the  charge 
of  the  Sustentation  Fund.     When  the  new  collegiate  arrange- 
ments  following  upon  the  Disruption  were  completed.  Dr. 
Chalmers  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  scheme  for  the- 
ological education  (first  broached  by  him  in  1828)  adopted 
by  the  Free  Church,  and  an  additional  Professor  of  Divinity 
appointed.*      The  preliminary  branches  being  committed  to 
his  colleague,  Dr.  Chalmers's  undivided  labor  was  bestowed 
upon  systematic  theology.      It  had  for  many  years  been  the 
highest  object  of  his  literary  and  professorial  ambition  to  leave 
behind  him  a  complete  body  of  Divinity,  containing  the  fruits 
of  his  maturest  reflections,  both  on  the  credentials  and  con- 
tents  of  the  Christian  Revelation.      Had   his  Lectures    on 
Natural  Theology  and  the  Evidences  not  been  already  given 
to  the  public,  they  would  have  been  subjected  to  the  same 
process  of  condensation  through  which  his  other  lectures  were 
made  to  pass,  and  his  "  Institutes  of  Theology,"  w^hen  given 
to  the  world,   would  have  presented  a  more  uniform  and 
homogeneous  aspect  than  they  now  wear.     As  for  many  years 
*  With  a  staff  of  five  Theological  Professors  the  Free  Church  Col- 
lege  provides  now  the  most  comprehensive  and  corapiete  course  of  the- 
ological  education  supplied  by  any  British  Institution.     For  full  in- 
formation on  this  subject  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  Inaugural  Ad- 
dress of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cunningham,  delivered  at  the  opening  of  the  New 
College. 


420  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

he  had,  however,  to  go  over  the  same  ground  with  his  stu- 
dents which  the  first  four  volumes  of  his  works  embraced,  he 
adopted  the  plan  of  employing  these  volumes  as  text-books, 
accompanying  his  examinations  with  that  summary  and  re- 
view of  their  contents  which  form  Book  II.  and  Book  III. 
of  his  "  Institutes  of  Theology."  With  the  obvious  disad- 
vantage of  subjecting  the  reader  of  this  last  work  to  a  reitera- 
tion of  familiar  topics,  those  two  books  of  the  "  Institutes" 
exhibit  a  compactness  of  diction,  which  amply  proves  that 
he  could  when  he  pleased  transfer  the  brevity  and  force  of 
his  spoken  into  his  written  language,  and  what  will  be  of  no 
ordinary  importance  to  any  one  who  undertakes  the  hitherto 
unattempted  task  of  estimating  the  direct  and  original  con- 
tributions which  Dr.  Chalmers  had  made  to  theological  sci- 
ence, they  give  us  his  own  estimate  of  what  he  conceived  to 
be  most  valuable  in  his  earlier  writings.  It  is,  however,  to 
that  portion  of  the  "Institutes"  which  treats  of  the  subject- 
matter  of  Christianity  that  we  would  especially  solicit  atten- 
tion. Upon  no  part  of  his  pubhshed  writings  was  so  large 
a  share  of  their  author's  care  and  thought  bestowed.  There 
are  to  be  found  here  his  latest  and  ripest  thoughts  upon  some 
of  the  profoundest  questions  with  which  the  human  intellect 
has  engaged  ;  if  not  set  forth  in  the  gorgeous  amplifications 
in  which  he  loved  previously  to  indulge,  yet  in  the  simpler, 
purer,  weightier  diction  which  became  one  who  was  leaving 
his  last  intellectual  legacy  to  the  world. 

The  "  Institutes  of  Theology"  and  the  "  Daily  Scripture 
Pleadings"  were  commenced  about  the  same  time,  and  were 
carried  on  simultaneously,  a  portion  of  each  being  written 
daily,  and  the  transition  being  frequently  instantaneous  from 
the  one  composition  to  the  other.  Engaged  with  the  one, 
he  brought  to  the  Divine  oracles  a  mind  singularly  free  of 
theological  prejudice  ;  he  sat  as  a  little  child  at  the  feet  of 
Divine  wisdom,  and  received  into  a  meek  and  loving  heart, 
according  to  its  plain  and  natural  meaning,  each  utterance 
she  gave  forth.      Engaged  with  the  other,  he  brought  to  the 


JET.  65.  THE  NORTH  BRITISH  REVIEW.  421 

sacred  oracles  a  mind  full-fraught  with  the  true  spirit  of  the 
Inductive  Philosophy,  and,  collecting  the  varied  testimonies 
of  the  Divine  record  as  they  lay  scattered  over  the  sacred 
page,  he  combined  them  into  one  complete  and  harmonious 
system.  The  two  engagements  were  most  unlike.  Very 
rarely  has  the  same  simplicity  in  the  one,  and  the  same  sci- 
ence in  the  other,  been  exhibited  ;  but  where  shall  we  find 
another  instance  in  which  the  two,  brought  into  such  daily 
and  close  proximity,  went  on  so  harmoniously  together  ?  The 
many  prayers,  however,  which  Dr.  Chalmers  offered  that  he 
might  be  preserved  from  the  fetters  of  an  artificial  ortho- 
doxy,=*  may  be  taken  as  an  evidence  that  even  in  his  instance 
it  was  not  without  an  effort  that  simplicity  sat  embosomed 
in  system,  while  system  did  nothing  to  hurt  simplicity. 

Besides  the  composition  of  his  "  Institutes  of  Theology," 
the  only  other  literary  occupation  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  later 
years  was  an  occasional  contribution  to  the  "  North  British 
Review."  This  publication,  which,  under  its  present  accom- 
plished Editor,  ranks  with  the  best  conducted  and  most  influ- 
ential of  our  literary  journals,  was  established  in  1844  by 
Dr.  Welsh,  Mr.  Edward  F.  Maitland,  and  a  few  friends  in 
Edinburgh,  to  whom  it  appeared  that  there  was  both  room 
and  need  for  a  Review  of  the  highest  class,  the  organ  of  no 
party,  political  or  ecclesiastical,  and  which,  instead  of  ignor- 
ing or  affecting  to  disown  Christianity,  was  imbued  with  its 
spirit.      What  the  "  Enghshman's  Register,"  of  Dr.  Arnold, 

*  "  Let  me  not  be  the  slave  of  human  authority,  but  clear  my  way 
through  all  creeds  and  confessions  to  thine  own  original  Revelation. 
#  #  #  Deliver  me,  O  God,  from  the  narrowing  influences  of  human 
lessons,  and  more  especially  of  human  systems  of  theology.  Teach 
me  directly  out  of  the  fullness  and  freeness  of  thine  own  Word,  and 
hasten  the  time  when,  unfettered  by  sectarian  intolerance,  and  unawed 
by  the  authority  of  man,  the  Bible  shall  make  its  rightful  impression 
upon  all,  because  the  simple  and  obedient  readers  thereof,  they  call  no 
man  master  but  Christ  only.  *  *  #  Oh,  that  we  were  fully  unfettered 
iVora  all  which  has  the  eflTect  of  distorting  and  deranging  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  Bible  in  the  artificial  systems  of  human  ortliodoxy." — 
HortB  SabbaticcE,  vol.  i.  pp.  69,  350,  373. 


422  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

was  meant  to  do  for  the  great  mass  of  the  population,  the 
*'  North  British  Review"  was  intended  to  accompHsh  in  the 
highest  branches  of  literature  and  for  the  highest  class  of 
readers.  "  I  never  wanted,"  says  Dr.  Arnold,  "  articles  on 
religious  subjects  half  so  much  as  articles  on  common  sub- 
jects, written  with  a  decidedly  Christian  tone" — language 
which  the  founders  of  the  "  North  British  Review"  would 
have  been  forward  to  adopt.  Its  pure  and  independent,  its 
Christian  yet  unsectarian  aim,  recommended  it  to  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, who  entered  warmly  into  the  project  of  its  establish- 
ment, and  contributed  several  articles  to  it  while  under  the 
editorship  of  Dr.  Welsh  and  Mr.  Maitland.*"  Upon  the  re- 
tirement of  the  latter,  the  writer  of  these  Memoirs  was  invited 
to  be  his  successor,  an  office  which  he  was  encouraged  to 
undertake  by  the  large  promises  of  counsel  and  aid  held  out 
by  Dr.  Chalmers.  For  the  brief  period  that  remained,  those 
promises  were  energetically  fulfilled.  Mr.  Maitland  had 
already  put  into  Dr.  Chalmers's  hands  Morell's  History  of 
"  Modern  Philosophy,"  and  invited  him  to  review  it.  This 
work  gratified  a  curiosity  which  had  hitherto  been  unsatisfied. 
He  had  been  sensible  of  a  tide  of  speculation  setting  in  from 
Germany,  which  threatened  to  displace  all  our  ancient  faiths, 
both  in  theology  and  in  science  ;  he  had  marked  the  increas- 
ing influence  which  it  was  exerting,  and  had  become  some- 
what alarmed  as  to  the  result.  As  it  stood  before  him, 
clothed  in  the  dark  mantle  of  a  new  and  obscure  phraseology, 
he  had  not  as  yet  been  able  to  form  any  distinct  conception 
of  the  prima  "philosopliia  of  the  German  metaphysicians,  and 
he  was  glad  and  grateful  when  an  intelligent  expositor  ena- 

*  The  following  were  the  Articles  which  he  contributed  : 
Number  I.  Art.  1.  On  the  Corn  Laws. 

On  the  Political  Economy  of  the  Biblo. 

On  the  Poor  Laws  of  Scotland. 

On  Savings'  Banks. 

On  Sterling's  Philosophy  of  Trade. 

On  Morell's  History  of  Philosophy. 

On  the  Political  Economy  of  a  Famine. 


HL 

Art. 

1. 

IV. 

Art. 

7. 

VL 

Art. 

3. 

XI. 

Art. 

4. 

xn. 

Art. 

1. 

XHL 

Art. 

9. 

^T.  65.  GERMAN  PHILOSOPHY.  423 


bled  him  to  do  so.  He  resolved  forthwith  to  institute  a 
comparison  between  it  and  the  Philosophy  of  Reid,  and  to 
test  its  power,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  upon  the  established 
theology  of  Scotland.  It  was  a  subject  altogether  new  to 
him,  which  threw  him  back  upon  the  studies  of  earlier  days  ; 
but  so  eagerly  did  he  embark  upon  it,  that  in  the  introductory 
address  which  he  delivered  as  Principal  of  the  New  College, 
in  November,  1846,  he  announced  it  to  be  his  intention  to 
deliver  a  short  course  of  lectures  to  his  students  upon  the 
German  Philosophy.  These  lectures  were  embodied  after- 
ward in  an  article  which  appeared  in  the  1  2th  Number  of 
the  "  North  British  Review."  Dr.  Chalmers's  knowledge 
of  the  subject  was  too  slender,  and  taken  up  too  much  at 
second-hand,  for  us  to  expect  from  him  any  minute  or  pro- 
found analysis  of  the  Continental  speculations  ;  but  as  there 
were  few  better  fitted  to  take  a  general  survey  of  any  wide- 
spread intellectual  field,  and  to  mark  off  the  broad  boundaries 
of  truth  and  error,  it  was  most  interesting,  at  this  period  of 
his  life,  to  watch  the  almost  boyish  zest  with  which  the  new 
region  opened  to  his  contemplation  was  traversed — most  in- 
structive to  mark  the  first  impressions  he  received,  and  the 
conclusions  to  which  he  was  conducted.  "  I  have  a  great 
respect,"  he  used  to  say  in  his  private  conversations  at  this 
time,  "  for  the  preference  they  show  in  Germany  to  mental 
over  material  products.  A  book  bears  a  much  greater  pro- 
portional value  to  a  bale  of  silk  there  than  among  us.  It 
shows  a  high  people — the  value  they  have  for  pure  thought. 
But  there  is  a  great  want  of  solidity  about  their  philosophy. 
They  overstep  the  limits  that  separate  the  known  from  the 
unknown  in  a  most  unphilosophical  way.  I've  no  reverence 
for  profound  reasoning,  the  grounds  of  which  can  not  be  made 
patent  to  other  minds.  Their  fine  airy  speculations  may 
show  a  certain  mental  power  in  the  mind  that  originates 
them,  but  they  have  not  the  weight  of  a  straw  to  direct  me 
on  my  path — great  acumen — great  grandeur  of  conception — < 
but  where  is  the  appeal  to  undoubted  fundamental  truth  and 


424  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

historical  fact  ?  It  is  ridiculous  to  oppose  a  fine  wire-drawn 
argument  to  a  historic  fact.  I  just  say  to  all  their  arguments 
and  their  counter-arguments,  that  I  can't  undertake  to  arbi- 
trate between  conflicting  maggots.^  Truth,  no  doubt,  lies 
at  the  bottom  of  a  well ;  but  which  should  get  most  credit, 
the  man  that  leaves  it  there,  or  the  man  that  brings  it  to  the 
surface  ?"  Such  was  the  way,  sometimes  playful,  some- 
times profoundly  serious,  in  which  he  used  to  speak  in  private 
to  his  family  and  friends.  The  terms  were  more  measured, 
the  tone  more  solemn,  in  which  he  addressed  his  students. 
"  I  should  esteem  it  one  of  the  highest  services  which  our 
Institute  could  render  to  society,  and  among  the  proudest  of 
its  literary  honors,  did  there  issue  from  these  walls  in  those 
days  of  conflict  which  are  coming,  when  many  of  ourselves 
shall  be  reposing  in  the  dust,  profoundly  asleep  to  all  the 
noises  of  the  living  world  above  us,  some  master  minds  that 
could  measure  strength  with  every  system  of  philosophy  on 
the  continent,  and  by  the  weight  of  a  more  jjowerful  and  ponder- 
ous demonstration  than  was  wielded  by  any,  could  rebuke  and 
overbear  all  the  infidelity  that  was  to  be  found  in  them.  *  *  *  * 

*  "  Full  of  the  subjects  of  the  Germans  and  their  philosophy,  it  was 
natural  that  during  breakfast  that  morning,  he  should  lead  the  conver- 
sation in  that  direction.  On  this  particular  occasion,  however,  it  hap- 
pened that  his  hostility  to  what  he  considered  a  vicious  tendency  in  all 
characteristic  Gei-man  speculation,  predominated  over  the  respect  which 
he  acknowledged  for  the  powerful  intellectual  manifestation  visible  in 
this  species  of  labor.  As  he  spoke,  he  became  excited,  even  angry. 
There  was  much  false  reverence,  he  thought,  for  many  things,  simply 
because  they  were  foreign,  and  this  was  seen  in  the  present  rage  for 
German  philosophy.  It  was  the  greatest  madness  imaginable.  '  Ger- 
many! a  country  where  system  after  system  was  springing  up,  none 
of  them  lasting  a  day;  every  man,  as  it  were,  holding  up  his  cheeks, 
crying,  "Look  at  me,  too  !"    I  tell  you  I'll  look  at  none  of  you — your 

Skillers    (Schillers),  and  your  Skagels    (Schlegels),  and  your .' 

There  he  was  interrupted  by  the  merry  laughter  of  all  at  his  half-con- 
scious mispronunciation  of  the  two  German  names  that  had  the  misfor- 
tune to  occur  to  him  in  his  moment  of  wrath,  and,  well  aware  of  the 
cause,  he  broke  down  into  a  laugh  at  himself." — Pictures  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers^ in  Lotceh  Magazine. 


^T.  65.  GERMAN  PHILOSOPHY.  425 

"  I  feel  it  incumbent  on  me  to  enter  on  a  computation  of 
the  distances  and  bearings  between  this  transcendentalism  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  theology  of  the  Bible  upon  the  other. 
This  I  apprehend  to  be  all  the  more  necessary,  that  I  do  re- 
collect of  some  who,  chiefly  in  the  University,  and  before  our 
Disruption,  were  a  good  deal  carried,  as  if  by  a  sort  of 
fashionable  infection,  which  might  have  been  seen  in  the 
phraseology  of  their  discourses,  and  I  will  add,  however  mor- 
tifying to  one's  own  self-love,  and  all  the  more  mortifying  that 
they  were  really  superior  and  aspiring  young  men,  who  gave 
forth  the  symptom  which  I  am  now  to  describe  in  their  ob- 
vious inattention  to  the  lessons  of  the  Chair,  as  if  they  had 
only  been  plain  Scottish  boluses,  having  vastly  too  much  in 
them  of  the  home-bred  and  the  commonplace  to  be  at  all 
suited  for  those  higher  appetencies  which  nothing  else  can 
satisfy  but  the  more  exquisite  and  recherche  articles  of  a 
foreign  preparation,  just  as  if  we  had  been  serving  up  milk 
for  babes,  instead  of  strong  meat  for  men  of  a  full-grown  un- 
derstanding, or  speaking  from  the  outer  court  to  those  who 
had  already  been  initiated  in  the  mysteries  of  the  inner  tem- 
ple. What  I  want  to  make  out  is,  that  the  unintelligible 
does  not  always  imply  the  solid,  or  even  the  profound  ;  and, 
far  more  momentous  than  this,  that  the  simple  verities  of  the 
Christian  faith  rest  on  a  foundation  deep  enough  and  strong 
enough  to  uphold  them  against  the  more  recent,  or,  I  should 
rather  say,  the  ever-shifting  philosophy  that  now  sets  in  upon 
us  from  abroad. 

"  Many  of  you  know  my  value  for  the  intelligible,  and  my 
conviction  of  the  magnitude  of  that  service  which  lies  in 
transmuting  what  is  profound,  and  only  understood  by  a  few, 
into  what  is  plain,  and  so  that  it  may  be  understood  by  many. 
We  know  well  the  penalty  that  awaits  the  successful  execu- 
tor of  such  an  aim,  that,  had  he  abstained,  he  would  have 
been  still  ranked  among  the  profound  thinkers  of  the  day  ; 
but,  because  he  has  not  only  made  the  endeavor,  but  fulfilled 
it,  he  sinks  down  to  the  level  of  a  very  plain  and  ordinary 


426  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

personage.  Nevertheless,  I  will  rejoice  in  it  as  the  best 
achievement  of  philosophy,  when  it  has  made  its  products 
patent  to  every  eye,  and  accessible  to  the  world  at  large." 

It  fell  singularly  in  with  the  current  of  Dr.  Chalmers's 
thoughts,  that,  when  engaged  in  the  study  of  the  German 
philosophy.  Professor  Tholuck,  of  Halle,  visited  Edinburgh. 
He  took  an  early  opportunity  of  spending  an  evening  with 
him,  at  the  house  of  the  friend  with  whom  he  resided.* 
"Dr.  Chalmers,"  says  this  friend,  "seated  himself  on  a  low 
chair  close  to  the  learned  German,  and  listened  with  an  air 
of  genuine  docility  to  all  he  said,  throwing  in  a  stray  charac- 
teristic observation  now  and  then,  always,  however,  in  the 
way  of  encouragement,  never  in  the  way  of  contradiction. 
Dr.  Tholuck  had  published  some  verses  of  a  religious  charac- 
ter, which  had  given  umbrage  to  some  sect  or  other.  He 
showed  the  lines  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  who  admiring  them,  ob- 
served that  he  had  often  been  taken  to  task  himself  for  a 
similar  latitudinarianism  ;  '  for,  my  dear  Sir,' he  added,  '  some 
people  have  a  very  fine  nose  for  heresy.'  While  Dr.  Chal- 
mers was  sitting  in  this  posture,  drinking  in  all  that  was  said 
to  him,  Tholuck  turned  to  his  host,  and  said  in  German,  that 
he  had  never  seen  so  beautiful  an  old  man.  The  words 
coming  out  so  suddenly  in  an  unknown  tongue,  instantly 
changed  the  whole  expression  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  face  from 
that  of  happy  acquiesence,  to  one  of  puzzled  amazement, 
which  was  in  the  highest  degree  comic,  and  this  effect  was 
not  lessened  by  his  eager  putting  of  the  question,  '  What  is 
it.  Sir,  that  he  says  V — a  question  impossible  to  answer,  and 
yet  not  easy  to  evade.  The  result  of  this  interview  was  an 
amount  of  mutual  confidence  and  esteem,  as  deep  and  sincere 
as  it  was  sudden.  Dr.  Tholuck  took  an  early  opportunity 
of  returning  the  visit,  and  spent  some  hours  with  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, urging  upon  him  in  the  most  direct  and  homely  way, 
the  necessity  of  directing  his  mind  to  the  study  of  the  Ger- 
man Theology,  for,  as  it  was  from  that  quarter  the  bane  had 
*  Dr.  Rutherfurd  Rus.sell. 


yET.  65.  THE  FAMINE,  427 


come  which  was  poisoning  the  simple  faith,  so  it  was  there 
alone  that  the  antidote  could  be  found.  The  day  before 
Tholuck's  departure,  Dr.  Chalmers  called  upon  him  and  found 
him  at  his  mid-day  repast.  He  sat  with  him  only  for  a  few 
minutes,  and  said  little,  but  looked  at  him  constantly  with 
an  expression  of  earnest  interest  and  affection.  He  rose  to 
take  leave  ;  and,  instead  of  taking  him  by  the  hand,  he  threw 
his  arms  round  his  neck  and  kissed  him,  while  '  God  bless 
you,  my  dear  friend,'  broke  with  apparent  difficulty  from  his 
overcharged  heart.  After  he  was  gone,  it  was  noticed  that 
a  tear  had  gathered  in  the  eye  of  him  who  had  received  the 
apostolic  benediction  and  seal  of  brotherhood  from  one  he 
loved  and  venerated  so  much.  His  only  observation  was  a 
half-muttered,  half-spoken,  eben  ein  Kuss — even  a  kiss." 

The  article  upon  Morell's  History  was  to  have  been  follow- 
ed by  a  series  of  papers  on  Kant,  Fichte,  and  Cousin,  for  which 
Dr.  Chalmers  had  collected  some  materials,  when  another 
subject  arrested  his  sympathies  and  occupied  his  pen.  The 
almost  total  failure  of  the  potato  crop  in  1846  left  300,000 
of  the  population  in  the  Highlands  and  Islands  of  Scot- 
land, and  many  millions  in  Ireland,  to  face  the  coming  year 
with  food  in  hand  sufficient  to  sustain  them  only  for  a  few 
weeks.  The  extent  of  the  failure  of  the  crop  was  no  sooner 
announced  than  the  avvfulness  of  the  impending  catastrophe 
filled  Dr.  Chalmers  with  alarm  and  anxiety.  He  foresaw 
that  nothing  but  an  act  of  prompt  and  unparalleled  generos- 
ity could  ward  off  the  fearful  calamity  of  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands in  a  Christian  land  miserably  perishing  from  want  of 
food.  To  wait  till  the  cry  of  actual  hunger  was  heard,  and 
the  sight  of  the  dying  kindled  sympathy,  was  to  ring  the 
death-knell  over  multitudes  to  whom  the  relief  would  come 
too  late.  Fastening  his  first  thoughts  upon  the  Highlands, 
he  not  only  hastened  to  gather  up  all  the  information  con- 
veyed through  public  channels,  but  by  private  circulars  of 
his  own,  widely  distributed,  he  obtained  the  most  minute  and 
trustworthy  accounts  of  the  state  of  the  suffering  population. 


428  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

As  a  great  proportion  of  them  were  members  of  the  Free 
Church,  it  became  that  Church  to  step  prominently  forward 
in  this  emergency,  and  to  do  what  she  could  to  save  them 
from  the  horrors  of  famine.  Nor  did  she  fail  in  her  duty 
at  this  time  ;  being  the  first  public  body  that  moved,  organ- 
izing an  effective  Committee  of  Pwelief,  and  ordering  a  public 
collection  to  be  made  in  all  her  churches  on  Sabbath,  the  6th 
December.  Animated  by  a  generous  philanthropy,  Dr.  Chal- 
mers addressed  the  following  letter  to  Dr.  Mackay  of  Dunoon, 
who  was  leading  this  movement  of  the  Church  : 

"  Edinburgh,  2Qlh  November,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Sir — I  quite  agree  with  you  in  thinking  that 
the  public  have  a  most  inadequate  view  of  the  efforts  neces- 
sary to  keep  our  suffering  population  alive  ;  and  I  earnestly 
hope  that  the  collection,  on  Sabbath,  the  6th  of  December, 
will  be  somewhat  proportional  to  the  magnitude  of  the  call, 
though  I  am  quite  aware  that  it  will  not  reach,  by  a  tenth 
part,  the  magnitude  of  the  necessity.  Still  let  us  do  our 
part,  and  it  may  stimulate  others  to  like  efforts,  and  not,  I 
hope,  supersede  them.  I  trust  that  your  anxieties  as  to  the 
amount  of  the  collection  will  prove  unfounded.  It  should 
very  greatly  exceed  the  average  collections  for  any  of  our 
schemes  ;  and  most  heartily  do  I  wish  that  the  people  were 
brought  up  to  a  high  pitch  of  liberality,  by  a  juster  view  than 
I  fear  is  generally  entertained,  both  of  the  immense  number 
of  destitute  families  and  the  extreme  urgency  of  their  wants. 

"  Ever  since  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop  became  quite 
notorious,  I  have  felt  as  if  the  country  at  large  were  under 
a  delusion  in  underrating,  as  I  fear  they  do,  the  fearfulness 
of  a  visitation,  which,  if  not  provided  against,  will  land  us  in 
a  great  national  tragedy.  If  people  would  only  have  re- 
course to  the  plainest  arithmetic,  and  think  of  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  families,  both  in  the  Highlands  and  in  Ireland, 
who  are  positively  without  the  materials  of  subsistence  for  a 
week,  and  further  think,  that  for  six  months  at  least,  we  can 


^T.  65.  THE  FAMINE.  429 

look  for  nothing  from  the  soil,  this  might  well  convince 
them  how  far  the  public  imagination  falls  short  of  the  reality 
of  the  case. 

"But  it  is  not  by  means  of  the  feeble  and  unimpressive 
generalities  which  I  now  pen,  that  sympathy  will  be  awaken- 
ed, and  therefore  I  would  value  more  the  plain  and  literal 
details  of  suffering  from  people  on  the  spot,  than  I  would  any 
elaborate  statement  or  demonstrations  which  could  be  put 
forth  on  the  subject.— I  ever  am,  my  dear  Sir,  yours  very 
truly,  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  The  Rev.  Dr.  Mackay,  Dunoou." 

This  call  was  nobly  responded  to.  The  collection  was 
the  largest,  I  believe,  ever  made  by  any  Church  in  Scotland 
for  any  object ;  the  Committee  of  Relief  being  put  into  pos- 
session of  no  less  a  sum  than  £15,000.  This  denomination- 
al effort  was  soon  merged  into  those  larger  measures  of  relief 
which  Scotland  so  promptly  and  successfully  adopted,  so  that 
while  thousands  died  in  Ireland — whole  households  perishing 
together,  and  many  lying  unburied  till  the  dogs  came  and 
devoured  their  bodies — it  was  not  known  that  in  Scotland  a 
single  individual  died  solely  and  directly  from  want  of  food. 
It  required,  however,  incessant  vigilance,  and  no  small  amount 
of  generosity,  to  be  sustained  all  through  the  winter.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  public  tide  of  charity  flowing  in  upon  the  High- 
lands, innumerable  lesser  streams  were  kept  constantly  flow- 
ing. Very  large  sums  were  committed  to  Dr.  Chalmers  for 
private  distribution.  There  was  scarcely,  indeed,  a  daily 
post  which  did  not  bring  him  some  donation  ;  and  he  never 
watched  for  letters  more  eagerly,  and  he  never  read  any  with 
greater  delight.  He  had  many  methods  of  communicating 
directly  or  indirectly  with  the  Highlands,  and  of  dispensing 
the  money  intrusted  thus  to  his  care.  To  one  lady  alone, 
the  late  Mrs.  Mackay,  we  are  aware  of  his  having  commit- 
ted more  than  £500.  Nor  was  Ireland  forgotten  Her 
greater  sorrows  claimed  a  large  share  of  his  sympathy  ;   and, 


430  MExMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

through  Miss  Pringle  of  Edinburgh,  and  Dr.  Edgar  of  Belfast, 
he  had  pleasure  in  conveying  his  own  and  other  gifts  of 
charity.  The  extraordinary  spectacle  of  upward  of  300,000 
men  employed  on  the  relief  works — of  upward  of  three  mill- 
ions of  people  fed  daily  by  the  hand  of  public  charity,  and  yet 
many  perishing  notwithstanding — afforded  matter  of  most 
interesting  speculation.  When  the  spring  months  came, 
there  was  a  fear  that  large  breadths  of  the  country  would 
be  left  uncultivated.  The  crofters  had  neither  seed-corn  of 
their  own,  nor  money  to  buy  it;  and  even  after  it  was  fur- 
nished to  them,  they  knew  little  or  nothing  of  the  new  modes 
of  agriculture  which  it  would  be  necessary  for  them  to  adopt. 
The  state  of  a  country  thrown  suddenly  into  circumstances 
so  new,  appeared  to  Dr.  Chalmers  so  worthy  of  investigation 
that  he  resolved  to  devote  himself  to  the  task.  Having  pre- 
sented his  general  views  in  a  paper  entitled,  "  The  Political 
Economy  of  a  Famine,"^  he  proposed  to  prosecute  a  minute 
and  searching  inquiry  into  the  past  condition  and  future  pros- 
pects both  of  the  Highlands  and  of  Ireland,  with  a  view  to  de- 
termine what  were  the  likeliest  means  of  permanently  improv- 
ing the  economic  condition  of  their  inhabitants.  It  is  ever 
to  be  regretted  that  he  did  not  live  to  execute  a  work  for 
which  much  preparation  had  been  made,  and  many  materi- 
als collected.  We  can  but  indicate,  that  from  the  singular 
history  of  the  Relief  Works  in  Ireland  he  meant  to  draw  a 
fresh  illustration  of  the  evils  by  which  all  public  charity  is 
accompanied,  and  of  the  inseparable  connection  which  obtains 
between  the  moral  and  economic  well-being  of  a  community. 
He  meant  to  test  the  various  expedients  for  promoting  the 
future  prosperity  of  Ireland,  by  applying  to  them  the  general 
axioms,  that  it  was  out  of  her  own  soil,  and  by  the  industry 
of  her  own  inhabitants,  that  she  must  be  taught  to  draw  her 
support,  and  that  the  best  and  most  effective  aid  which  could 
be  given  her,  was  that  which  promised  the  soonest  to  set  her 
free  from  all  foreign  help.  And  had  he  lived  to  see  what 
^   See  North  British  Rcvieic.  No.  XIII. .  Art.  IX. 


MT.  65.  THE  FAMINE.  431 

since  his  departure  has  been  attempted,  I  can  have  little 
doubt,  that  while  rejoicing  over  the  progress  of  female  indus- 
trial schools  in  various  parts  of  Ireland,  his  eye  would  have 
rested  with  particular  complacency  upon  such  operations  as 
those  prosecuted  at  Ballinglen,*  where  the  young  are  trained 
to  that  kind  of  industry,  for  which  there  is  a  permanent  de- 
mand, and  have  instilled  into  them  the  lessons  of  truth  and 
righteousness. 

*  For  a  recent  admirable  proposal  by  Dr.  Diiflf  relative  to  the  exten- 
sion of  this  establishment,  see  No.  14  of  '•  Voice  from  Ireland." 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

LAST  VISIT  TO  ANSTRUTHER— INCIDENT  AT  BARNS- 
MUIR— SERMON  AT  ST.  MARY'S  LOCH— CAVERS  RE- 
VISITED—DOMESTIC HABITS— TIMES  AND  MODES  OF 
COMPOSITION  —  NUMERICAL  ADJUSTMENTS  —  THE 
TOILET— THE  BREAKFAST  TABLE— MODE  OF  RECOG- 
NIZING HIS  STUDENTS  — CONVERSATIONAL  MEjNIO- 
RANDA— APOSTOLIC  SUCCESSION  — THE  MONASTE- 
RIES AND  THE  MIDDLE  AGES— AMERICAN  SLAVERY 
—THE  SPIRITUAL  RABBIT-WARREN— EXCESS  AT  TA- 
BLE—EVENING READINGS  OF  GIBBON,  SHAKSPEARE, 
AND  MILTON— CATECHISMS  AND  CONFESSIONS- 
SCRIPTURE  CHARACTERS— LIFE  AT  BURNTISLAND— 
FEELING  OF  YOUTHFULNESS— HEAVINGS  OF  INCIPI- 
ENT  CIVILIZATION— JANET  OF  THE  GALLOWGATE 
AND  THE  ASTRONOMICAL  DISCOURSE  —  CONSOLA- 
TORY LETTERS. 

In  the  spring  of  1845,  Dr.  Chalmers  visited  his  native 
village.  It  almost  looked  as  if  he  came  to  take  farewell,  and 
as  if  that  peculiarity  of  old  age  which  sends  it  back  to  the 
days  of  childhood  for  its  last  earthly  reminiscences  had  for  a 
time  and  prematurely  taken  hold  of  him.  His  special  object 
seemed  to  be  to  revive  the  recollections  of  his  boyhood — 
gathering  Johnny-Groats  by  the  sea-beach  of  the  Billowness, 
and  lilacs  from  an  ancient  hedge,  taking  both  away  to  be 
laid  up  in  his  repositories  at  Edinburgh.*  Not  a  place  or 
person  familiar  to  him  in  earlier  years  was  left  unvisited. 
On  his  way  to  the  church-yard,  he  went  up  the  very  road 
along  which  he  had  gone  of  old  to  the  parish  school.  Slip- 
ping into  a  poor-looking  dwelling  by  the  way,  he  said  to  his 
companion,  Dr.  Williamson,  "  I  would  just  like  to  see  the 

*  After  his  death,  a  drawer  of  his  desk  was  found  filled  with  relics 
of  many  kinds,  among  which  was  a  piece  of  lilac,  labeled  "  Lilac  from 
my  father's  garden." 


^T.  65.  SCENE  AT  BARNSMUIR.  433 

place  where  Lizzy  Green's  water-bucket  used  to  stand" — the 
said  water-bucket  having  been  a  favorite  haunt  of  the  over- 
heated ball-players,  and  Lizzy  a  great  favorite  for  the  free 
access  she  allowed  to  it.  He  called  on  two  contemporaries 
of  his  boyhood,  one  of  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  forty-five, 
the  other  for  fifty-tv/o  years,  and  took  the  most  boyish  de- 
light in  recognizing  how  the  "  mould  of  antiquity  had  gather- 
ed upon  their  features,"  and  in  recounting  stories  of  his  school- 
boy days.  "  James,"  said  he,  to  the  oldest  of  the  two,  a 
tailor,  now  upward  of  eighty,  who  in  those  days  had  aston- 
ished the  children,  and  himself  among  the  number,  with  dis- 
plays of  superior  knowledge,  "  you  were  the  first  man  that 
ever  gave  me  something  like  a  correct  notion  of  the  form  of  the 
earth.  I  knew  that  it  was  round,  but  I  thought  always  that 
it  was  round  like  a  shilling  till  you  told  me  that  it  was  round 
like  a  marble."  "  Well,  John,"  said  he,  to  the  other,  whose 
face,  like  his  own,  had  suffered  severely  from  small-pox  in 
his  childhood,  "you  and  T  have  had  one  advantage  over  folk 
with  finer  faces — theirs  have  been  aye  getting  the  waur,  but 
ours  have  been  aye  getting  the  better  o'  the  wear  I"  The 
dining-room  of  his  grandfather's  house  had  a  fire-place  fitted 
up  behind  with  Dutch  tiles  adorned  with  various  quaint  de- 
vices, upon  which  he  had  used  to  feast  his  eyes  in  boyish  won- 
der and  delight.  These  he  now  sought  out  most  diligently, 
but  was  grieved  to  find  them  all  so  blackened  and  begrimed 
by  the  smoke  of  half  a  century,  that  not  one  of  his  old  wind- 
mills or  burgomasters  was  visible.  To  one  apartment  he 
felt  a  peculiar  tie,  as  having  been  appropriated  exclusively  to 
his  use  in  his  college  days  when  the  love  of  solitary  study 
was  at  times  a  passion.^  But  the  most  interesting  visit  of 
all  was  to  Barnsmuir,  a  place  a  few  miles  from  Anstruther 

*  A  visitor  of  old  Mr.  Chalmers  once  noticed  him  coming  out  of 
this  room  with  a  singular  smile  upon  his  face.  When  asked  what  had 
amused  him,  he  said,  "It's  Thomas  there;  I  went  in  upon  him  and 
disturbed  him  in  his  studies,  and  what  do  you  think  he  exclaimed  ? 
'  It's  too  bad  that  I  can't  get  even  a  room — I  just  wish  that  I  had  a 
wrrld  to  myself  to  study  in  !'  " 
vol..  IV.— T 


434  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

on  the  way  to  Crail.      In  his  schoolboy  days  it  had  been 

occupied  by  Captain  R ,  whose  eldest  daughter  rode  in 

daily  on  a  little  pony  to  the  school  at  Anstruther.  Dr. 
Chalmers  was  then  a  boy  of  from  twelve  to  fourteen  years  of 
age,  but  he  was  not  too  young  for  an  attachment  of  a  singu- 
larly tenacious  hold.      Miss  R was  married  (I  believe 

while  he  was  yet  at  college)  to  Mr.  F and  his  oppor- 
tunities of  seeing  her  in  after  life  were  few,  but  that  early 
impression  never  faded  from  his  heart.  At  the  time  of  this 
visit  to  Anstruther  in  1845,  she  had  been  dead  for  many 
years,  but,  at  Dr.  Chalmers's  particular  request,  her  younger 
sister  met  him  at  Barnsmuir.  Having  made  the  most  af- 
fectionate inquiries  about   Mrs.  F and  her  family,  he 

inquired  particularly  about  her  death,  receiving  with  deep 
emotion  the  intelhgence  that  she  had  died  in  the  full  Chris- 
tian hope,  and  that  some  of  his  own  letters  to  her  sister  had 
served  to  soothe  and  comfort  her  latest  hours.  "  Mrs. 
W ,"  said  he,  eagerly,  «'  is  there  a  portrait  of  your  sis- 
ter any  where  in  this  house  ?"  She  took  him  to  a  room, 
and  pointed  to  a  profile  which  hung  upon  the  wall.  He 
planted  himself  before  it — gazed  on  it  with  intense  earnest- 
ness— took  down  the  picture,  took  out  his  card,  and,  by  two 
wafers,  fixed  it  firmly  on  the  back  of  the  portrait,  exactly 
opposite  to  the  face.  Having  replaced  the  likeness,  he  stood 
before  it  and  burst  into  a  flood  of  tears,  accompanied  by  the 
warmest  expressions  of  attachment.  After  leaving  the  house, 
he  sauntered  in  silence  round  the  garden,  buried  in  old  recol- 
lections, heaving  a  sigh  occasionally,  and  muttering  to  him- 
self— "  more  than  forty  years  ago  I"  It  is  not  often  that  a 
boyish  feeling  survives  so  long,  and  still  less  frequent  that 
after  such  a  hfe  of  variety  and  occupation  as  his  had  been, 
it  should  break  out  so  freshly  and  strongly  ;  nor  would  wie 
have  ventured  to  record  the  incident,  did  it  not  appear  to  us 
to  prove  that  Dr.  Chalmers  was  as  much  distinguished  for 
the  tenderness  and  tenacity  of  his  attachments  as  for  the 
brilliancy  of  his  intellectual  gifts. 


MT.  65.  SERMON  AT  ST.  IVIARY'S  LOCH.  435 

On  Sabbath,  the  12th  April,  1846,  he  preached  in  the 
small  but  beautifully  situated  Free  Church,  built  upon  the 
edge  of  St.  Mary's  Loch.  Mr.  Parker,  who  had  been  the 
chief  agent  in  the  erection  of  the  church,  went  with  him  as 
his  guide  and  companion,  and  he  was  accompanied  besides 
by  two  of  his  daughters.  "  I  like,"  said  he,  as  they  wended 
their  way  through  the  bare  and  treeless  but  purely  green  and 
beautifully  moulded  hills  of  Peebles-shire — "  I  like  these  quiet 
hills,  these  sober  uplands.  Hills,  all  bare  like  these,  are 
what  I  call  the  statuary  of  landscape."  The  valley  of  the 
classic  Yarrow  was  entered,  and  its  intense  stillness  and  lone- 
liness powerfully  excited  him.  He  stopped  his  carriage,  and 
calling  out  to  Mr.  Parker,  who  was  on  the  box  of  another 
carriage  in  which  his  two  daughters  were  seated — "  Tell 
them,"  he  exclaimed,  "  to  look  at  the  solitudes  that  are  about 
them."  That  night  at  Sundhope,  where  he  was  most  hos- 
pitably entertained,  he  called  his  daughters  into  his  own 
room,  and  read  to  them  Wordsworth's  exquisite  description 
of  Yarrow,  repeating  with  great  emphasis  of  delight  the 
lines — 

"  Meek  loveliness  is  round  thee  spread, 
A  softness  still  and  holy ; 
The  grace  of  forest  charms  decayed, 
And  pastoral  melancholy." 

The  Sabbath  sustained  well  the  fitful  character  of  a 
changeful  April  day.  It  rose  hopefully,  bright  all  over  with 
the  lustre  of  recent  rain.  The  lake  lay  glass-like  under  the 
wave-like  clouds  which  flitted  gently  over  it.  At  the  hour 
for  worship,  and  as  Dr.  Chalmers  was  seen  approaching,  for 
the  first  time  since  the  chime  of  the  monks  was  silenced,  the 
sound  of  the  Sabbath-bell  came  floating  over  its  waters.  Dr. 
Chalmers  preached  from  his  favorite  text,  Isaiah  xxvii.  4,  5. 
There  was  unruffled  beauty  without  and  perfect  stillness 
within  till  the  service  was  over  ;  but  as  the  worshipers 
began  to  disperse,  a  storm-blast  swept  the  loch,  and  a  perfect 
waterspout  of  rain   poured   down   upon   them,   forcing   the 


436  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

plaided  shepherds  and  their  famihes  to  cower  for  shelter 
behind  knoll  or  dyke.  The  next  morning,  Dr.  Chalmers 
had  o-reat  pleasure  in  breakfasting  with  John  Cowan,  a  ven- 
erable shepherd — the  patriarch  of  Yarrow — and  spent  the 
day  in  visiting  Henderland  and  the  "  Gray  Mare's  Tail," 
listening  to  the  ballads  which  his  daughters  repeated,  and 
gazing  with  ecstasy  upon  the  waterfall  which,  swollen  with 
the  heavy  rain,  filled  the  reeky  chasm  from  side  to  side, 
and  sent  out  its  foam-like  clouds  of  snow-drift  into  the  air. 
Yarrow  and  St.  Mary's  were  the  only  new  localities  which 
Dr.  Chalmers  visited  during  his  last  summers,  j^et  even  here 
his  thoughts  were  wandering  over  the  hills  of  Ettrick  to 
another  neighborhood.  His  daughters  had  climbed  a  hill  near 
Sundhope,  and  he  was  waiting  to  receive  them  on  their 
descent.  "  And  did  you,"  he  said  with  impatient  eagerness, 
after  listening  for  a  moment  or  two  to  their  description — 
"did  you  see  Cavers?"  and  then  turning  to  the  shepherd  who 
had  been  their  guide — "  Can  you  see  the  hills  about  Cavers 
from  that  elevation?"  An  affirmative  reply  having  been 
given  to  the  question,  he  looked  up  wistfully  to  the  hill-top, 
lamenting  that  his  strength  did  not  permit  of  his  ascending 
it,  and  uttering  some  ejaculations  about  the  scene  of  his  early 
ministry.  Three  months  afterward  he  went  to  Cavers — 
seeking  out  old  acquaintances,  surveying  the  little  room  in 
Hawick  where  so  many  of  his  first  sermons  were  written  and 
his  mathematical  preparations  had  been  prosecuted,  and  en- 
tering with  the  utmost  interest  into  all  the  domestic  history 
of  the  family  in  whose  house  he  had  then  lodged.  At  Jed- 
burgh he  passed  a  few  days  with  Mr.  ElHot,  the  grandson  of  the 
clergyman  to  whom  he  had  been  assistant,  and  we  have  to 
refer  our  readers  to  the  Appendix  for  a  most  striking  and  in- 
structive record  of  what  occupied  and  interested  him  at  the 
place.*  The  last  visit  of  the  last  summer  was  to  Glasgow, 
and  down  the  Clyde.  At  Tilliechewan  and  at  Strathloven 
he  sauntered  through  the  wooded  parks,  catching  glimpses 
*   See  Appendix,  H. 


^T.  65.  PECULIAR  PHRASEOLGY.  437 

of  Lochlomond  through  breaks  of  the  foliage,*  luxuriating 
amid  the  kindnesses  of  those  whose  personal  friendship  to 
himself  he  could  not  but  associate  with  their  boundless  hber- 
ality  to  his  Church.  In  returning  to  Edinburgh,  he  staid  a 
day  or  two  with  Mr.  Bain  at  Morriston  near  Glasgow,  and 
preached  in  the  open  air  at  Cambuslang  to  a  vast  multitude, 
assembled  within  some  natural  amphitheatre  where  White- 
field  had  once  preached.  These  farewell  summer  visits  paid, 
he  returned  into  the  bosom  of  his  family. 

*  He  had  a  peculiar  epithet  for  such  kind  of  views.  I  remember 
once  walking  with  him  in  company  with  a  refined  English  Baronet, 
when  he  suddenly  caught  sight  of  a  fine  mountain  view,  seen  through 
a  gap  in  a  neighboring  hedge.  Stopping  suddenly,  he  exclaimed — 
"Ha!  very  fine  ;  it's  very  fine.  Sir — an  ulterior  through  an  opening," 
— (or,  as  he  pronounced  it,  "through  an  oppening.")  His  English 
companion  stood  embarrassed  ;  politely  inquired  what  it  was  that  was 
so  fine  ;  had  the  same  words  repeated— and  looked  as  bewildered  as 
before.  Another  instance  of  perplexity,  produced  by  the  singularity 
of  his  phraseology,  occurs  to  me.  While  staying  at  Rosstrevor,  a  pic- 
nic party  proceeded  across  the  bay  to  visit  the  ruins  of  Carlingford 
Castle.  The  day  was  fine,  the  company  numerous,  the  scenery  en- 
chanting, and  Dr.  Chalmers  was  in  the  highest  spirits.  We  dined  on 
a  green  knoll  near  the  ruins,  and  as  dinner  proceeded,  some  old  crones 
from  a  neighboring  village  were  seen  hanging  around  us,  in  the  hope 
of  sharing  the  spoil.  When  Dr.  Chalmers  was  told  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  village  spoke  the  Irish  language,  he  declared  that  it  would 
be  quite  an  acquisition  to  him  to  hear  a  new  set  of  vocables  uttered  by 
a  native.  To  gratify  his  curiosity,  one  of  the  most  picturesque  of  the 
old  villagers  was  selected,  and  a  sixpence  was  given  to  her  to  come 
forward  and  speak  a  sentence  or  tv.'o  of  Irish.  By  this  time  we  were  all 
upon  our  feet,  and  had  formed  a  circle,  in  the  centre  of  which  stood 
Dr.  Chalmers  ;  fronting,  him  the  old  and  greedy-looking  crone,  and 
beside  her  the  village  doctor,  who  v»'as  to  act  as  an  interpreter.  "  Well 
sir,  tell  her  now  to  say  something  in  her  own  tongue."  A  sentence, 
accordingly,  was  spoken,  and,  turning  eagerly  to  the  interpreter,  Dr. 
Chalmers  said — "What  was  it  that  she  said?"  "Why,  Doctor,  she 
says  that  she  wants  another  sixpence,"  The  revolt  was  instantaneous, 
from  curiosity  to  intense  disgust  and  indignation.  Addressing  himself 
instantly  to  the  woman,  he  said,  "It  is  too  bad  ;  you  must  really  learn 
to  set  limits  to  your  unbridled  appetency."  An  interpreter  was 
evidently  as  much  needed  as  before.  When  Dr.  Chalmers  had  done 
with  her — leaving  her,  however,  quite  untouched  by  his  rebuke — a 


438  MEiMOlRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 


It  may  gratify  a  natural  curiosity  should  we  follow  Dr. 
Chalmers  through  the  different  engagements  of  a  day  at 
Morningside,  and  furnish  some  details  of  his  personal  habits 
and  mode  of  domestic  life.  Whatever  variety  the  day  exhib- 
ited, it  had  one  fixed  essential  feature.  The  motto,  "  Nulla 
dies  sine  li7iea"  never  met  with  a  more  rigorous  fulfillment. 
The  period  allotted  to  what  he  called  "severe  composition" 
had  never  (if  we  except  his  first  winter  at  St.  Andrews)  ex- 
ceeded two  or  three  hours  at  a  time,  and  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances there  was  seldom  more  than  one  sitting  daily  at  such 
work.  The  tension  of  the  mind  during  the  effort  was  extreme, 
but  it  was  never  so  long  continued  as  to  induce  fatigue  or 
exhaustion.  During  the  last  six  or  seven  years  of  his  life, 
his  daily  modicum  of  original  composition  was  completed  be- 
fore breakfast,  written  in  short-hand,  and  all  done  in  bed. 
The  preparatory  ruminating  or  excogitating  process  was  slow, 
but  it  was  complete.  He  often  gave  it  as  the  reason  why  he 
did  not  and  could  not  take  part  in  the  ordinary  debates  of 
the  General  Assembly,  that  he  had  not  the  faculty  which 
some  men  seemed  to  him  to  possess,  of  thinking  extempore  ; 
nor  could  he  be  so  sure  of  any  judgment  as  to  have  comfort 
in  bringing  it  before  the  public  till  he  had  leisurely  weighed 
and  measured  it.  He  was  vehement  often  in  his  mode  of 
expression  ;  but  no  hasty  judgment  was  ever  penned  or  pub- 
licly spoken  by  him.  "  I  have  often  fancied,"  he  once  said 
to  me,  "  that  in  one  respect  T  re.semble  Rousseau,  who  says 
of  himself  that  his  processes  of  thought  were  sloiu  but  arclcnf 

good  lady  of  the  company  stepped  forward  to  inquire  of  her,  w'hether 
it  really  could  be  true  that  she  worshiped  the  Virgin.  She  appeared 
to  be  much  provoked,  and  the  village  doctor,  who  had  no  relish  for 
such  kind  of  conversation,  cut  the  colloquy  short,  and  sent  the  woman 
away.  The  lady,  fearing  that  she  had  really  hurt  the  woman's  feel- 
ings, followed  her  to  a  retired  place,  and  telling  her  that  she  had  no 
intention  whatever  to  give  her  pain,  in  proof  of  her  good-will  put  a 
shilling  into  her  hand.  The  woman  looked  for  a  moment  at  the  shill- 
ing, then  at  the  donor;  and  wnth  a  toss  of  hand  and  head,  she  said,  in 
tones  of  the  greatest  glee,  "  Och !  and  what  does  your  ladyship  think 
I  care  about  the  Virgin?" 


JF.T.  65.  HABITS  OF  COMPOSITION.  439 

— a  curious  and  rare  combination.  In  proportion,  however, 
to  the  slowness  with  which  his  conclusions  were  reached,  was 
the  firmness  with  which  they  were  riveted.  He  has  been 
charged  with  inconsistencies,  but  (putting  aside  the  alteration 
in  his  religious  sentiments)  I  am  not  aware  of  any  one  opinion 
formally  expressed  or  published  by  him,  which  he  ever  changed 
or  retracted.  This  slow  and  deliberate  habit  of  thinking  gave 
him  a  great  advantage  when  the  act  of  composition  came  to 
be  performed.  He  never  had  the  double  task  to  do,  at  once 
of  thinking  what  he  should  say,  and  how  he  should  say  it. 
The  one  was  over  before  the  other  commenced.  He  never 
began  to  write  till,  in  its  subjects,  and  the  order  and  propor- 
tion of  its  parts,  the  map  or  outline  of  the  future  composition 
was  laid  down ;  and  this  was  done  so  distinctly,  and,  as  it 
were,  authoritatively,  that  it  was  seldom  violated.  When 
engaged,  therefore,  in  writing,  his  whole  undivided  strength 
was  given  to  the  best  and  most  powerful  expression  of  pre- 
established  ideas.  So  far  before  him  did  he  see,  and  so 
methodically  did  he  proceed,  that  he  could  calculate,  for 
weeks  and  months  beforehand,  the  rate  of  his  progress,  and 
the  day  when  each  separate  composition  would  be  finished. 

The  same  taste  for  numerical  arrangement  was  exhibited 
in  the  most  insignificant  actions  and  habits  of  his  life.  It 
regulated  every  part  of  his  toilet — down  even  to  the  daily 
stropping  of  his  razor.  Beginning  with  his  minimum,  which 
was  two  strokes,  he  added  one  stroke  more  each  day  succes- 
sively, till  he  got  up  to  a  number  fixed  on  as  his  maximum, 
on  reaching  which,  he  reversed  the  process,  diminishing  the 
number  of  his  strokes  by  one  each  day,  till  the  lowest  point 
was  touched  ;  and  so,  by  what  he  would  have  called  a  series 
of  oscillations  between  his  maximum  and  his  minimum,  this 
matter  of  the  stropping  undeviatingly  progressed.  It  would 
be  tedious,  perhaps  trifling,  to  tell  how  a  like  order  was 
punctually  observed  in  other  parts  of  his  toilet.  He  did 
almost  every  thing  by  numbers.  His  stafi'  was  put  down  to 
the  ground  regularly  at  each  fourth  foot-fall  ;   and  the  num- 


440  MExVIOlRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

ber  of  its  descents  gave  him  a  pretty  accurate  measure  of  the 
space  over  which  he  walked.  Habit  had  rendered  the  count- 
ing of  these  descents  an  easy,  indeed  almost  a  mechanical 
operation  ;  so  that,  though  meeting  friends,  and  sustaining  an 
animated  conversation,  it  still  went  on.  This  mode  of  mea- 
suring distances  was  variously  applied.  When  he  lived  at 
No.  7  Inverleith  How,  a  complication  of  streets  lay  between 
him  and  the  University,  and  he  imjjosed  upon  himself  the 
problem  of  discovering  a  new  route  each  day,  and  keeping  a 
register  of  their  relative  lengths.  Next  to  the  pleasure  of 
being  introduced  to  an  altogether  new  locality,  was  that  of 
thoroughly  exploring  one  already  known.  "  I  like,"  he  said 
to  one  of  his  favorite  students,  "to  find  out  new  spots  in 
places  I  am  familiar  with.  The  other  day  I  had  some  time 
to  spare,  so  I  tried  if  I  could  extemporize  a  new  route  be- 
tween Comely  Bank  and  Inverleith  Row.  I  sauntered, 
rather  dubious  I  must  confess,  up  a  sort  of  cart-lane,  and,  be- 
fore I  was  aware,  I  got  involved  in  the  accessories  of  a 
farm-house,  where  I  was  set  upon  by  a  mastiff,  and  so  obliged 
to  turn  back."  When,  in  the  spring  of  1843,  he  removed  to 
a  dwelling-house  which  he  had  built  for  himself  at  Morning- 
side,  as  the  distance  was  too  great  for  him  to  walk  from  Col- 
lege, he  generally  drove  to  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  While 
walking  from  Wright's  Houses,  the  point  at  which  he  was 
set  down,  to  his  house  at  Churchhill,  he,  one  winter,  kept  an 
accurate  reckoning  of  the  number  of  persons  he  met  upon  the 
road  each  day — curious  to  know  whether  a  fixed  average 
would  be  observed,  or  whether  it  would  vary  as  the  days 
shortened  or  lengthened.  Many  more  like  instances  might 
be  quoted,  but  we  must  return  to  our  details  of  his  daily  life. 
"  J.  find,"  he  says,  "  that  successful  exertion  is  a  powerful 
means  of  exhilaration,  which  discharges  itself  in  good-humor 
upon  others."  His  own  morning  compositions  seldom  failed 
in  this  effect,  as  he  came  forth  from  them  beaming  and 
buoyant,  with  a  step  springing  as  that  of  childhood,  and  a 
p})irit  overflowing  wnth  benignity.    If  his  grandson,  or  any  of 


JET.  G5.      MODE  OF  RECOGNIZING  HIS  STUDENTS.  441 

the  younger  members  of  his  family  were  alone  in  the  break- 
fast-room, a  broad  and  hearty  "  Hurro  I  hiirro  I"  ringing 
through  the  hall,  announced  his  coming,  and  carried  to  them 
his  morning  greeting.  As  his  invariable  mode  of  dealing  with 
introductions  was  to  invite  the  introduced  to  breakfast,  very 
interesting  groups  often  gathered  round  his  breakfast  table. 
In  the  general  conversation  of  promiscuous  society,  Dr.  Chal- 
mers did  not  excel.  There  are  minor  acts  of  governing,  such 
as  those  needed  for  the  management  of  a  House  of  Commons, 
or  the  conduct  of  a  General  Assembly,  in  which  he  was  ut- 
terly defective  ;  and  there  are  minor  graces  of  conversation 
required  for  its  easy  guidance  through  varied  and  fluctuating 
channels,  which  his  absorption  with  his  own  topics,  and  the 
massive  abruptness  of  his  movements,  made  it  difficult,  per- 
haps impossible,  for  him  to  practice.  But  at  his  breakfast 
table,  with  half  a  dozen  strangers  or  foreigners  around  him, 
his  conversation  was  in  the  highest  degree  rich  and  attract- 
ive. Opportunities  naturally  occurred,  or  were  willingly 
made,  for  him  to  "  expatiate"  upon  some  passing  public  topic, 
or  upon  some  of  his  own  favorite  themes,  and  he  was  never 
seen  nor  heard  to  greater  advantage.  His  power  of  pithy  ex- 
pression (remarkably  exhibited  in  his  occasional  employment 
of  vernacular  Scotch),  and  of  pictorial  narrative,  his  concen- 
trated and  intense  moral  earnestness,  his  sense  of  humor,  his 
boundless  benignity,  the  pure,  transparent,  and  guileless  sim- 
plicity of  his  character — received  many  of  their  happiest 
illustrations  at  such  times.  He  had  one  morning  in  the  week 
reserved  especially  for  his  students.  On  meeting  with  them 
in  his  own  house,  he  was  often  at  a  loss  to  recognize  them 
by  name,  and  the  mode  he  took  to  extricate  himself  from  the 
difficulty  was  rather  singular.  He  had  a  card  with  the 
names  on  it  of  all  the  students  whom  he  had  that  morning 
invited  to  breakfast.  When  all  had  assembled  and  were 
seated,  holding  the  card  below  the  level  of  the  table,  as  he 
thought  out  of  sight,  he  glanced  furtively  down  at  it  to  catch 
the  first  name  on  the  list.    Then,  lifting  his  eyes  and  looking 


442  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

eagerly  and  rapidly  around,  he  would  say — "Tea  or  coffee, 
Mr.  Johnson  ?"  hoping  by  this  innocent  artifice  to  identify 
the  person  so  addressed,  and  to  save  him  the  pain  of  being 
apparently  unknown  or  forgotten.  The  device  was  too  trans- 
parent to  be  unnoticed  ;  but  which  of  his  students  did  not 
love  him  all  the  more  for  the  kindliness  which  dictated  it  I 
The  recognition  once  got  over,  no  after  difficulty  remained. 
The  student  was  asked  generally  from  what  part  of  the  coun- 
try he  came,  and  it  must  have  been  some  very  remote  and 
inaccessible  region  which  found  Dr.  Chalmers  unprepared  to 
enter  immediately  into  conversation  upon  its  topography.  It 
was  his  first  and  favorite  subject,  and  he  revived  in  this  way, 
during  the  winter,  the  knowledge  gathered  in  his  summer 
travels.  When  he  met  with  one  of  kindred  taste,  or  capable 
of  informing  him,  he  would  talk  for  half  an  hour  about  a 
single  locality,  and  with  all  the  zest  of  a  regular  tourist. 
There  was  one  desire  which  upon  such  occasions  he  seldom 
failed  to  express  :  "I  should  like  exceedingly,"  he  would  say, 
"  that  we  had  a  series  of  maps  of  our  Scottish  horizons  ;  it 
would  be  most  interesting  to  recognize  the  appearances  which 
the  different  elevations  of  the  country  presented  as  seen  upon 
the  horizon  from  different  centres.  It  should  have  been  one 
of  the  Government  instructions  to  those  engaged  in  the  na- 
tional survey  to  furnish  us  with  such  a  set  of  maps." 

With  visitors  from  England,  the  conversation  at  the  break- 
fast table  turned  frequently  upon  the  state  of  the  English 
Establishment,  of  which  Dr.  Chalmers  had  been  an  ardent 
admirer,  but  whose  cause  he  felt  less  confidence  in  advocating 
after  the  inroad  of  Puseyism,  and  the  absence  or  the  impo- 
tence of  all  attempts  to  check  it.  "  In  speaking  of  apostolic 
succession,"  says  one  of  his  English  visitors,*  he  told  us  of  a 
summary  which  Campbell  of  Aberdeen  had  made  of  the  diffi- 
culties of  that  question,  which  had  always  appeared  to  him 
most  excellent.  Campbell  conducts  his  inquiry  relative  to 
apostolic  succession  by  putting  three  questions — Where  is  it  ? 
*  Lady  Richardson. 


JET.  65.  AMERICAN  VISITORS.  443 

how  is  it  ?  and  what  is  it  ? — and,  after  a  learned  disquisi- 
tion, conchides  in  some  such  terms  as  these  : — '  We  find 
therefore  that  it  is  a  something  nobody  knows  where,  con- 
trived and  produced  nobody  knows  how,  and  leading  to  con- 
sequences nobody  knows  what.'*  Allusion  having  been  made 
to  the  Middle  Ages,  and  to  the  piety  of  many  of  the  monks, 
'  I  had  no  idea,'  he  said,  '  that  so  much  of  the  history  of  that 
period  was  preserved  till  I  read  Hallam.  As  to  the  personal 
character  of  the  monks,  I  could  not  dogmatize  upon  that 
question.  It  is  astonishing  the  confidence  of  some  of  your 
orthodox  folk  in  their  judgments  upon  others,  and  that  too 
under  our  system  of  progressive  development.  T  just  say,  we 
have  not  the  materials  for  settling  such  a  question.  We 
would  need  to  penetrate  the  counsels  of  God,  and  the  secrets 
of  another  bosom,  before  we  could  pronounce  through  how 
much  distorting  error  a  man  may  grope  his  way  to  a  blissful 
immortality  ;  and  1  would  say,  therefore,  that  as  in  the  rude 
ages  the  monasteries  were  conservatories  of  learning,  so,  for 
aught  I  know,  they  were  conservatories  in  thousands  of  in- 
stances of  genuine  piety — debased  no  doubt  by  a  superincum- 
bent superstition." 

Dr.  Chalmers  was  much  gratified  by  the  reception  given 
to  his  works  in  America,  and  had  great  pleasure  in  making 

*  Connected  with  the  sacraments,  Dr.  Chalmers  often  told  a  favorite 
story  about  a  Highland  baptism.  A  clergyman  went  to  administer  the 
rite  in  the  house  of  one  of  his  hearers,  near  which  there  ran  a  small 
burn  or  river,  which,  when  he  reached  it,  was  so  deep  and  swollen  with 
recent  rains  that  he  could  not  get  across.  In  these  circumstances,  he 
told  the  father  to  bring  his  child  down  to  the  burn-side.  Furnished 
with  a  wooden  scoop  the  clergyman  stood  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
father,  holding  bis  child  as  far  out  in  his  arms  as  he  could,  stood  upon 
the  other.  The  service  proceeded,  and  when  the  time  came  for  sprink- 
ling the  babe,  the  minister  dipping  the  scoop  into  the  water,  flung  its 
contents  across,  aiming  at  the  baby's  face.  He  failed  more  than  once, 
calling  out  to  the  father  after  each  new  trial,  "  Weel,  has't  gotten  ony 
yet?"  Dr.  Chalmers  wondered  what  the  great  sticklers  for  form  and 
ceremony  in  the  sacraments  would  think  of  a  baptism  by  a  burn-side, 
performed  with  a  wooden  scoop. 


444  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 


the  personal  acquaintance  of  Dr.  Elton,  Dr.  Sprague,  Dr. 
Smyth,  Dr.  Cox,  Dr.  Beecher,  and  other  eminent  American 
clergymen.  In  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1845,  many 
Transatlantic  visitors  were  his  guests  at  Morningside.  The 
recent  controversy  about  the  propriety  of  the  Free  Church 
receiving  pecuniary  aid  from  Churches  which  admitted  slave- 
holders to  the  Communion,  had  directed  Dr.  Chalmers's  at- 
tention to  the  general  question  of  slavery  in  America,  and 
the  measures  of  the  immediate  abolitionists. =^  His  conversa- 
tions with  Americans  at  this  time  were  frequently  directed 
to  this  subject.  "  I  observe,"  he  said,  "  that  the  abolition- 
ists have  tried  to  extort  from  your  Board  of  Missions  a  decla- 
ration in  favor  of  emancipation.  It  is  really  too  bad  that 
they  should  try  to  implicate  in  that  way  their  one  undoubted 
good  thing  with  all  the  other  good  things  that  are  going  on 
in  the  world.  I  do  hope  that  this  obtrusive  spirit  of  theirs 
wall  have  an  efTectual  check  put  upon  it.  It  impedes,  be- 
sides, the  very  object  which  their  own  hearts  are  set  upon, 
and  which  there  are  other  hearts  as  zealous,  but  only  some- 
what wiser,  which  are  as  much  set  upon  as  theirs.  I  ad- 
mire exceedingly  the  deliverance  of  the  Board  of  Missions 
and  the  report  of  the  American  General  As.sembly — both 
done,  I  do  think,  with  admirable  tact  and  wisdom.  They 
have  greatly  elevated  my  estimate  both  of  the  wisdom  and 
force  of  principle  which  pervade  the  ecclesiastical  mind  and 
philanthropic  public  of  America." 

While  the  West  Port  enterprise  was  going  on,  more  than 
one  breakfast  party  was  composed  exclusively  of  agents  in 
that  undertaking.  At  one  of  them  he  was  told  of  an  objec- 
tion which  had  been  started  by  a  minister,  that  if  many 
churches  like  that  of  the  West  Port  were  erected,  each  of 
them  would  abstract  some  hearers  from  one  or  other  of  the 
existing  Edinburgh  ministers.  It  created  a  storm  of  indig- 
nation.     "  And  for  the  sake,"  said  he,  "  of  the  paltry  few  that 

*  For  the  matured  expression  of  his  sentiments  on  this  subject,  see 
Appendix,  I, 


-^T.  65.  HIS  ABSTEMIOUSNESS.  445 

would  drop  from  this  and  that  man's  congregation,  am  I  to 
let  the  masses  live  in  dirt  and  die  in  darkness  ?  Horrible  I 
to  make  a  rabbit-warren  of  human  souls  I  Can  that  man 
believe  what  he  preaches  who  would  stand  by  and  see  hun- 
dreds sink  into  an  unprovided  eternity,  rather  than  run  the 
risk  of  Mr.  John  this  [spoken  with  an  ironical  drawl],  or 
Mr.  James  that,  being  lost  to  his  congregation  ?  There 
is  a  vast  deal  of  spurious  faith,  and  I  see  more  and  more  the 
meaning  of  Christ's  question — '  When  the  Son  of  man  Com- 
eth, shall  He  find  faith  upon  the  earth  ?'  But  [the  indigna- 
tion gradually  giving  place  to  despondency]  I  have  little  hope 
of  the  impracticable  understandings  of  the  general  public. 
People  talk  of  the  enlightened  public  ;  I  just  look  upon  the 
public  as  a  big  baby.  Eh,  man  [turning  now  archly  to 
Tommy],  if  a'  the  gowks  in  the  world  were  brought  together, 
they  wad  fill  a  great  muckle  house." 

Before  or  after  breakfast,  Dr.  Chalmers  would  go  round 
the  garden  lying  immediately  behind  his  house,  in  the  pro- 
gress of  which  he  took  great  pleasure.  "  Well  dearie 
daughtts,"  he  would  say,  after  finishing  a  round,  "it's  a 
noble  instrument  a  garden  ;  I've  just  counted  all  the  things 
in  flower  (in  May)  round  all  the  walks,  and  they  are  320. 
There  is  one  which  occurs  with  a  nauseous  uniformity,  but 
with  that  exception  they  are  all  most  beautiful."  He  was 
always  the  first  to  bring  in  the  first  snow-drop  of  the  season, 
of  which  flower  he  was  passionately  fond. 

The  interval  between  breakfast  and  dinner  was  devoted  to 
the  "  Biblical  Readings,"  and  to  extending  the  short-hand  of 
the  "  Institutes."  He  dined  latterly  at  one  o'clock,  and  as  he 
had  to  be  at  his  class  at  two,  the  meal  was  necessarily  a  hur- 
ried one.  He  was  indifferent  about  food,  and  remarkably  ab- 
stemious. But  there  was  no  habit  of  life  about  which  he  was 
so  scrupulous.  His  private  journals  are  filled  with  constant 
laments  over  his  own  incautiousness  and  excess  at  table  ;  so 
much  so,  that  were  these  journals  ever  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  one  ignorant  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  habits,  he  might  draw  from 


446  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

them  a  conclusion  exactly  opposite  to  the  truth.  One  night 
at  supper  at  Merchiston  Castle,  a  water  biscuit,  as  thin 
as  a  wafer,  but  of  large  circumference,  was  put  upon  the  plate 
before  him.  As  he  got  into  an  animated  conversation,  he 
continued  breaking  down  this  biscuit  into  small  parts,  and 
eating  them.  When  he  discovered  that  the  biscuit  was 
consumed,  he  expressed  himself  surprised  and  shocked  ;  and 
although  that  was  all  that  he  partook  of  upon  this  occasion, 
there  was  an  entry  that  night  in  his  journal — "  exceeded 
to-night  at  supper."  The  truth  was,  that  whenever  he  felt 
his  capacity  for  any  intellectual  effort  or  any  spiritual  exer- 
cise impaired  after  eating,  he  attributed  it  to  an  excess,  which 
it  was  his  duty  to  curb.  By  a  single  extract  from  his  jour- 
nal, let  us  convey  an  impression  of  the  light  in  which  this 
part  of  self-government  was  regarded. 

"Incapable  of  study,  and  in  great  physical  discomfort. 
How  shameful ;  and  let  me  here  record  my  humbling  sense 
of  it,  that  this  was  in  great  part  due  to  excess  at  table, 
which  has  made  me  bilious,  and  alive  to  all  sorts  of  plague 
and  provocation.      I  gave  way  to  this  vile  indulgence  at  Mr. 

P 's,  and  have  not  been  careful  in  the  least  for  weeks 

past.  Enable  me,  O  God,  to  make  a  stand  now,  to  enter  on 
a  new  habit,  and  strive  with  all  might  for  the  mastery  over 
this  degrading  appetite.  But  work  in  me  by  the  might  of 
thy  Spirit,  O  God  ;  not  me,  but  the  grace  of  God  that  is  in 
me.  Let  me  slay  this  enemy.  Let  me  keep  the  body  under 
subjection.  Let  me  embark  with  all  strength  of  purpose  on 
this  holy  warfare.  Henceforward  may  I  be  circumspect, 
awake — awake  both  to  duties  and  consequences,  with  a  con- 
stant sense  in  me  of  God,  and  the  predominating  influence  of 
His  will,  and  that  consciously,  and  with  the  distinct  feeling 
of  its  obligation  over  my  will,  else  how  can  I  be  said  to  be 
living  otherwise  than  without  God  in  the  world.  My  God, 
let  me  enter  now  on  a  set  career  of  self-government ;  and  hav- 
ing the  prospect  of  several  convivial  engagements  before  me, 
let  me  have  the  comfort  of  recording  a  victory  over  the  lusts 


JET.  65.  SHAKSPEARE,  447 


which  war  against  the  soul.  Let  me  bethink  myself  of  what 
I  might  yet  do  with  my  mind,  and  what  I  have  yet  to 
recover  of  a  spirituality  faded  and  well-nigh  extinct,  because 
overlaid  by  the  sensualities  of  the  flesh.  The  contest  is  for 
heaven,  which  I  shall  never  reach  unless  the  spirit  so  lust 
against  the  flesh  as  to  prevail  over  it.  Let  me  therefore 
carry  the  principle  of  godliness  abroad  over  the  whole  plat- 
form of  my  life,  and  downw^ard  to  the  minutest  actions  of  it, 
that  whetherl  eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  I  do,  it  might  be 
to  the  glory  of  God  ;  and  O  save  me  from  those  sad  effusions 
of  temper  which  are  so  opposed  to  the  second  law,  to  the 
charity  of  the  Gospel,  and  that  long-suffering  which  is  one  of 
the  Spirit's  most  precious  fruits." 

Dr.  Chalmers's  evenings  were  given  to  general  reading, 
and  to  the  society  of  his  family  and  friends.  He  kept  stead- 
ily by  one  book  at  a  time,  and  however  small  a  portion  of  it 
might  be  overtaken  each  evening,  the  perusal  was  regularly 
prosecuted  to  a  close.  And  here  too,  as  well  as  in  his  sum- 
mer visits,  he  sought  out  the  friends  of  his  youth.  Within 
the  last  two  or  three  years  of  his  life,  he  completed  an  entire 
perusal  of  Gibbon,  Shakspeare,  and  Milton.  "  I  don't  won- 
der now,"  he  said,  "  at  Milton's  own  preference  for  '  Para- 
dise Pv-egained  '  over  '  Paradise  Lost.'  "  The  single  passage 
of  Shakspeare  which  he  most  frequently  recited,  was  that 
one  in  Henry  IV.,  which  commences 

"  I  saw  young  Harry — with  his  beaver  on, 
His  cuisses  on  his  thighs,  gallantly  armed,"  &c. ; 

and  the  single  play  in  which  he  took  most  pleasure  was  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream,  among  the  fairy  pictures  of  which 
he  delighted  to  revel.  *«  I  look,"  he  would  say,  after  laying 
down  the  book,  "  I  look  on  Shakspeare  as  an  intellectual 
miracle  ;  I  would  put  him  before  Milton  from  his  exhaust- 
less  variety."  One  of  his  students  once  told  him  of  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  Germans  about  Shakspeare,  and  related  the 
anecdote  of  Goethe's  comparison  between  Tieck,  Shaks- 
peare, and  himself,  in  which,  with  a  singular  mixture  both 


448  MEMOIRS   OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

of  pride  and  humility,  he  said,  "  That  relation  which  Tieck 
holds  to  me,  I  hold  to  Shakspeare.  I  regard  Shakspeare  as 
a  being  of  a  superior  nature."  "Well,  sir,  do  you  know," 
said  Dr.  Chalmers,  after  hearing  the  anecdote,  "  I  like  that 
very  much.  I  dare  say  Shakspeare  was  the  greatest  man 
that  ever  lived — greater  perhaps  even  than  Sir  Isaac  New- 
ton." In  February,  1845,  two  years  after  the  Disruption, 
we  find  the  following  entry  in  Dr.  Chalmers's  journal :  "  A 
few  days  ago  finished  the  complete  perusal  of  Shakspeare. 
Began  '  Paradise  Lost,'  and  am  reading  with  great  interest 
'  Edwards  on  the  end  of  God  in  Creation.'  Let  me  hence- 
forth betake  myself  to  serious  reading." 

In  his  domestic  intercourse  with  his  daughters,  there  was 
much  playful  familiarity.  Finding  one  of  them  sitting  alone 
in  a  room,  he  said  to  her — "  Well,  my  dear  little  howlet — 

Hail,  mildly  pleasing  solitude, 
Companion  of  the  wise  and  good ; 

but  I'm  no  for  us  growing  perfectly  uncognizant  of  one  an- 
other, sitting  in  corners  like  sae  mony  cats."  After  some  of 
his  great  public  appearances,  when  he  came  home  exhausted, 
his  daughters  would  gather  round  him  as  he  lay  at  ease  in 
his  arm-chair.  One  would  play  Scotch  music,  another  sham- 
poo his  feet  (a  very  frequent,  and  to  him  always  a  very  agree- 
able operation),  a  third  would  talk  nonsense,  and  set  him 
into  fits  of  laughter.  At  such  times,  in  a  mock  heroic  way, 
he  would  repeat  Scott's  lines,  "  O  woman,  in  our  hours  of 
ease,"  &c.  A  spirit  of  chivalry  ran  through  all  his  inter- 
course with  his  daughters  :  they  not  only  ministered  to  his 
comfort  in  the  hours  of  relaxation,  he  made  them  companions, 
as  it  were,  of  his  public  life,  and  sought  their  intellectual  sym- 
pathy with  his  even  highest  exercises  of  thought.  Busied 
with  his  pamphlet  on  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  in  which  he 
was  dealing  with  the  proper  plan  and  use  of  Confessions  of 
Faith,  "  I  look,"  said  he  to  one  of  his  daughters,  "  on  Cate- 
chisms and  Confessions  as  mere  landmarks  against  heresy. 
If  there  had  been  no  heresy,  they  wouldn't  have  been  want- 


^T.  G5.  SCRIPTURE  CHARACTERS. 


449 


ed.  It's  putting  them  out  of  their  place  to  look  on  them  as 
magazines  of  truth.  There's  some  of  your  stour  orthodox 
folk  just  over  ready  to  stretch  the  Bible  to  square  with  their 
catechism  :  all  very  well,  all  very  needful  as  a  landmark, 
but  [  kindling  up  ]  what  I  say  is,  do  not  let  that  wretched! 
mutilated  thing  be  thrown  between  me  and  the  Bible." 
"  Bacon,"  said  his  daughter,  "  compares  the  Bible  to  the 
well-spring,  and  says,  he  were  a  huge  fool  that  would  not 
drink  but  from  a  tank."  "  Ha  !  ha  !  where  does  Bacon  say 
that  ?  it's  nasty  in  the  tank  too,  whiles  ?"  The  conversa- 
tion turned  upon  Mr.  Carlyle,  for  whom  he  cherished  great 
regard  and  admiration.  -  It  is  a  most  interesting  phenom- 
enon," said  he,  ''  to  me,  Carlyle's  state  of  mind.  The  lad 
looking  with  a  most  graphic  and  intelligent  eye  on  the  pe- 
culiarities of  Calvinism,  having  a  sort  of  regard  too  for  them, 
and  yet"  *  *  #  «  Jt  jg  a  curious  faculty  that  I  have"— ^ 
we  quote  now  from  another  of  his  conversations "  of  mag- 
nifying things.  Now  I  find  no  difficulty  in  looking  at  this 
[a  little  tuft  of  tree-moss  which  he  held  in  his  hand]  as  if 
I  were  an  animalcule  living  there  within  it,  and  these  little 
fibres  a  great  pine  forest  with  fine  green  mounds  in  it.  *  *  * 
What  an  infinite  variety  of  systems  may  the  planetary  world 
embrace  !  For  aught  I  know,  our  own  system  may  be  di- 
versified with  worlds  no  bigger  than  that  table  head.  There 
would  be  scope  enough  for  exquisite  panoramas — the  master 
existence  no  larger  than  a  bee  or  butterfly.  Who  knows  in 
the  inexhaustible  profusion  of  nature  what  may  be  ?" 

Reposing  in  his  easy-chair,  and  recalhng  the  subjects  of 
his  "  Bible  Readings,"  he  would  say,  "  I  am  fond  of  the 
Old  Testament ;  what  a  stately  procession  of  Scripture  char- 
acters !    I  have  just  twelve  that  I  call  my  magnates  ;  what 

a  pinnacle  that  speech  of  our  Saviour's  lifts' Abraham  to 'he 

rejoiced  to  see  my  day,'  piercing  the  futurity  of  2000  years. 
— I  hke  Isaac,  there  was  such  a  mildness  about  him:  it  is 
very  picturesque  his  going  forth  to  meditate  in  the  evening 
tide. — Jacob's  early  life  is  most  distasteful  to  me.      The  truth 


450  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CEIALMERS.  1845. 


is,  h«  was  just  too  much  o'  a  sneck-drawer  :  he  was  the 
sneck-drawer,  and  Esau  was  the  snool  about  the  pottage. 
But  how  impressive  his  interview  with  Pharaoh  and  his 
closing  scene  I — There  was  great  chivalry  no  doubt  in  David 
pouring  out  the  water  before  the  Lord — the  chivalry  of  the 
Middle  ages,  in  the  antique  Jewish  way  of  it.  I  can  not 
say  I  altogether  sympathize  in  it ;  I  wad  e'en  ha'e  ta'en  a 
willy-waucht  o'  the  water. — I  like  every  thing  that  marks 
the  identity  of  human  nature.  I  am  sure  that  judgment  of 
Solomon's  would  make  a  great  stir  among  the  women  ; 
tongues  wad  no  be  idle  at  Jerusalem." 

''About  the  beginning  of  1834,"  we  quote  now  from  a 
manuscript  of  the  Pvev.  Mr.  Couper  of  Burntisland,  "  Dr. 
Chalmers  became  the  proprietor  of  a  house  in  this  locality, 
and  here,  for  seven  or  eight  years  following,  nearly  one-half 
of  his  time  was  spent.      His  liking  for  the  locality  was  very 
strong.      It  was  not  so  bustling  then  as  it  is  now  ;   but  on 
this  account  was  all  the  more  congenial  to  his  tastes  and 
habits.      'Some  people,'  he  remarked,  'say  that  this  is  a  dull 
place  ;  but  what  they  call  dull,  I  call  delicious.'      His  mode 
of  life  while  here  was  tolerably  uniform   and    exceedingly 
simple.      The  earlier  portion  of  the  day  he  generally  devoted 
to    study  and   correspondence,   reserving  the  afternoon  and 
evening  for  the  society  of  his  family  and  friends,  and  for  the 
exercise  of  walking,  in  which  he  took  great  delight.      He 
had  many  visitors,  not  a  few  of  them  from  other  countries  ; 
and  he  scarcely  ever  failed,   when  time  and  weather  per- 
mitted, to  conduct  them  to  his  favorite  points  of  view,  where 
he    expatiated   with   wonderful   enthusiasm   on   the   varied 
beauty  of  the  surrounding  scenery.      It  was  scarcely  possible 
to  take  even  one  short  walk  with  him  without  perceiving 
that  his  capacity  of  enjoyment  was  singularly  large.      He 
could  find  beauty  every  where  ;   at  least  he  could  single  out 
from  the  most  ordinary  scene,  some  feature  or  other  on  which 
his  mind  could  dwell  with  interest  and  pleasure.      All  the 
points  from  which  the  scenery  of  this  locality  could  be  viewed 


^T.  65.  FEELING  OF  YOUTHFULNESS.  451 

to  most  advantage,  he  knew  most  thoroughly ;  and,  however 
interesting  the  conversation  in  which  he  might  be  engaged, 
it  was  sure  to  be  interrupted  when  any  one  of  these  points 
was  reached.  He  would  pause  for  a  moment — his  eye  would 
wander  over  the  landscape,  and,  with  a  smile  mantling  over 
his  countenance,  he  would  give  a  brief  but  expressive  utter- 
ance to  his  feelings  of  joy  and  admiration.  The  unselfish- 
ness of  his  delight  in  Nature  was  very  noticeable.  He 
seemed  to  have  a  positive  affection  for  the  scenes  and  objects 
from  which  he  drew  so  much  pure  enjoyment — it  was  as  if 
his  heart  went  out  to  them.  On  a  calm  and  bright  summer 
day,  I  happened  to  be  with  him  in  one  of  his  favorite  haunts, 
the  small  promontory  called  Lammerlaws,  which  forms  the 
eastern  portion  of  the  peninsula  on  which  this  town  is 
situated — the  tide  was  full,  the  water  rippled  gently  be- 
tween the  low  ledges  of  rock,  and  laved  the  roots  of  the 
grass  and  wild  flowers  that  skirted  every  little  nook.  '  I 
have  a  great  affection  for  these  nooks,'  was  the  characteristic 
remark  that  fell  from  Dr.  Chalmers  ;  and  in  the  tone  in 
which  it  was  uttered  there  was  a  warmth,  and  withal  a 
certain  indescribable  pathos,  which  conveyed  at  once  the  im- 
pression that  he  spoke  from  the  fullness  of  his  heart. 

«'  His  youthful  freshness  of  feeling  imparted  a  singular 
charm  to  his  manners  and  conversation.  Even  when  verging 
on  old  age,  he  was  very  strikingly  characterized  by  the  sim- 
plicity of  vivacious  and.  unsuspecting  boyhood.  Of  this 
peculiarity  he  was  himself  quite  conscious,  and  I  have  heard 
him  more  than  once  allude  to  it.  Having  equipped  himself 
one  evening  to  go  to  Edinburgh,  he  appeared  to  have  out- 
grown his  ordinary  dimensions — the  pockets  of  his  great-coat 
being  well  stuffed,  I  think,  with  books  and  pamphlets.  This 
occasioned  some  merriment,  in  which  he  heartily  joined. 
Placing  his  hands  on  his  sides,  he  went  on  to  say,  '  I  have 
now  somewhat  of  the  solidity  and  gravity,  and  somewhat 
also  of  the  breadth  of  middle  age  ;  but  I  can  scarcely  shake 
off  the  feehng  of  boyhood.      I  remember,  Mr.  Couper,  when 


452  .      MExMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  184.G. 

I  was  a  student  at  St.  Andrews,  with  what  profound  ven- 
eration I  regarded  the  Professors  ;  when  I  came  to  be  a 
Professor  there  myself,  I  used  to  wonder  if  these  gilpies  could 
have  the  same  feeling  toward  me.'  I  may  give  another 
instance  equally  characteristic.  A  steep  wooded  bank  over- 
hanging the  sea,  commences  about  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the 
west  of  Burntisland,  and  terminates  near  the  village  of 
Aberdour.  Here  Dr.  Chalmers  delighted  to  ramble,  and 
great  was  his  satisfaction  when  he  had  one  or  tv/o  friends 
along  with  him  to  explore  the  Hews — for  such  is  the  name 
of  the  locality.  One  day  on  reaching  the  west  end  of  the 
Hews,  we  found  the  gate  locked,  and,  as  we  intended  to  pro- 
ceed to  Aberdour,  we  had  to  scale  the  wall.  Dr.  Chalmers 
declined  the  offer  of  assistance,  feeling  assured  that  he  was 
quite  competent  to  the  task  himself  He  soon  succeeded  in 
planting  himself  on  the  top  of  the  wall,  but  felt  it  expedient 
to  rest  for  a  little  before  attempting  to  come  down.  Perched 
on  this  rustic  eminence,  he  felt  as  if  carried  back  into  the 
scenes  of  his  boyhood,  and,  looking  blandly  down  upon  the 
companions  of  his  walk,  gave  vent  to  his  feelings  in  a  very 
curious  and  racy  strain  of  observation  :  the  purport  of  it  was 
that  he  felt  it  very  difficult  to  realize  his  progress  in  life,  and 
that  there  was  often  a  great  contrast  between  his  feelings 
and  his  years.  '  When  I  meet,'  he  said,  '  a  respectable 
matron,  who  is  perhaps  a  dozen  years  younger  than  myself, 
I  feel  quite  disposed  to  look  up  to  her  with  the  same  sort  of 
veneration  that  I  felt  when  I  was  a  boy.' 

"  While  engaged  in  conversation,  Dr.  Chalmers  would  oc- 
casionally fall  into  a  reverie,  which,  by  those  not  acquainted 
with  him,  was  felt  to  be  embarrassing.  The  reverie,  when 
not  broken  in  upon  by  others,  was  generally  terminated  by 
the  abrupt  utterance  of  some  important  sentiment  which  he 
had  been  revolving  in  his  mind.  Thus,  he  one  day  remarked, 
after  we  had  walked  for  a  while  in  silence,  '  What  a  blessed 
thing  it  is.  Sir,  that  it  is  confidence  that  is  required  of  us.' 
At  another  time,  a  pretty  long  pause  was  broken  by  his 


^T.  65.  FEELING  OF  YOUTHFULNESS.  453 

saying  with  much  emphasis,  '  I  know  no  point  of  orthodoxy 
that  is  not  susceptible  of  a  practical  treatment.  Take  an 
extreme  case — the  doctrine  that  man  can  do  nothing  of  him- 
self;  I  would  just  say,  Pray  all  the  harder.'  I  may  record 
another  of  the  sayings  which  fell  from  him  in  this  abrupt  but 
impressive  manner;  it  is  one  which  young  ministers  especially 
would  do  well  to  ponder.  '  It  is  of  great  importance  to  keep 
up  a  high  tone  of  pulpit  preparation  ;  the  efficacy  of  your 
private  ministrations  will  depend  very  much  upon  it.' 

"  He  often  became  extremely  animated — sometimes  even 
vehement — though  conversing  with  only  a  single  individual. 
This  was  especially  the  case  when  his  mind  was  occupied 
with  any  great  question  in  which  he  had  been  led  to  take  a 
prominent  part.  He  might  begin  calmly,  but  as  he  spoke, 
'  the  fire  burned,'  and  a  torrent  of  glowing  eloquence  soon 
came  rushing  from  his  lips.  I  have  heard  him  at  a  fireside, 
in  the  recess  of  a  window,  and  even  while  sitting  up  in  bed, 
break  forth  in  a  style  of  stormy  grandeur  sufficient  to  elec- 
trify a  whole  assembly.  A  scene  which  took  place  in  my 
own  study  is  worthy  of  being  recorded.  He  called  one  day 
with  Isaac  Taylor,  whom  he  greatly  loved  for  his  virtues, 
and  admired  for  his  genius.  It  was  at  a  time  when  the 
Church  Extension  cause  had  materially  suffered  from  what 
Dr.  Chalmers  regarded  as  the  unscrupulous  conduct  of  men 
in  power;  and  on  this  subject  he  broke  forth,  not,  as  he  him- 
self would  have  expressed  it,  with  the  vehemence  of  passion, 
but  with  the  vehemence  of  sentiment.  His  face  kindled  up, 
his  eye  flashed,  the  tone  of  his  voice  became  impetuous,  and 
his  whole  bearing  afforded  unmistakable  indications  of  the 
strength  of  the  emotions  that  were  at  v/ork  within.  When 
he  began,  he  was  seated  about  two  yards  off'  from  Mr.  Taylor, 
but  with  almost  every  sentence  that  he  uttered  he  gave  Ijis 
chair  a  hitch  nearer,  until  the  knees  of  the  two  were  in  very 
close  proximity,  and  Mr.  Taylor  had  to  draw  himself  up  and 
lean  back  on  the  wall  in  order  to  save  his  head  from  the 
uplifted  arm  of  '  the  old  man  eloquent.'      In  a  few  minutes 


454  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

the  thunder-cloud  passed  away,  and  his  bland  and  genial 
nature  beamed  forth  again  with  the  sunny  serenity  that 
usually  characterized  it. 

"He  had  a  wonderful  store  of  anecdotes  of  which  he  could 
avail  himself  with  a  happy  promptitude,  for  the  illustration 
of  any  subject  that  turned  up  in  conversation,  and  on  such 
occasions  his  keen  sense  of  the  ludicrous  was  often  evinced 
with  irresistible  effect.  One  evening  as  we  were  walking 
together  silently,  after  I  had  come  to  this  parish,  he  was 
much  gratified  with  the  respectful  demeanor  of  the  people 
whom  we  met,  and  in  particular  with  the  fact  (afterward 
described  by  himself  in  broad  Scotch)  that  '  an  auld  wife 
hirsled  aff  a  dyke  to  mak  her  courtesy.'  Toward  the  end 
of  our  walk,  a  person  having  passed  without  making  any 
sign  of  recognition,  Dr.  Chalmers  observed,  '  I  perceive  your 
people  don't  all  recognize  you  yet.  This  brings  to  my  mind 
a  story  connected  with  Buckhaven,  which  you  know,  is  a 
peculiar  sort  of  place.  It  was  long,  and  is  yet,  to  some 
extent,  behind  other  places  in  point  of  civilization  ;  but  some 
few  of  the  inhabitants  got  a  little  in  advance  of  the  rest. 
The  minister  of  the  parish  went  one  day  to  solemnize  a 
marriage  ;  he  made  the  bridegroom,  of  course,  promise  to  be 
a  faithful,  loving,  and  indulgent  husband — at  least,  he  put 
the  question  to  that  effect,  but  could  not  get  him  to  alter  his 
stiff,  erect  posture.  Again  and  again  he  repeated  the  form, 
but  the  man  remained  silent  and  stiff  as  ever.  A  neighbor 
was  present  who  knew  more  about  the  forms  and  footsteps 
of  the  thing,  and  was  considered  to  have  advanced  a  little 
more  in  civilization  that  the  rest.  Enraged  at  the  clownish- 
ness  of  the  bridegroom,  he  stepped  forward,  gave  him  a 
vigorous  knock  on  the  back,  and  said  to  him  with  cor- 
responding energy,  «Ye  brute,  can  ye  no  boo  to  the  minis- 
ter!' Dr.  Chalmers's  commentary  on  this  scene  was  brief 
but  emphatic — '  The  heavings  of  incipient  civilization,  you 
know.' 

"  Interesting  snatches  of  his  personal  history  were  some- 


^T.  65.  STORE  OF  ANECDOTES.  455 

times  brought  out  in  the  most  natural  and  incidental  manner, 
as  parallels  to  what  had  been  mentioned  in  the  course  of 
conversation.  I  happened  to  tell  him  the  following  incident 
which  I  had  heard  of  not  long  before.  At  the  close  of  a 
communion  season  in  the  north,  tJie  men  of  the  parish,  being 
assembled  with  the  ministers  who  had  assisted  on  the  oc- 
casion, expressed  their  satisfaction  with  the  services  that  had 
been  rendered,  and  each  particular  minister  received  his 
modicum  of  applause,  with  the  exception  of  one,  of  whose 
performances  not  one  word  was  said.  He  was  foolish 
enough  to  ask,  '  And  have  you  not  a  good  word  to  say  of 
me  ?'  In  order  to  soothe  his  feelings,  one  of  the  men,  who 
had  much  of  the  milk  of  human  kindness,  and  who  was 
resolved  to  go  as  far  as  truth  and  honesty  wo.uld  permit,  but 
no  farther,  said  to  him  with  much  simplicity,  '  Sir,  you  had 
fine  psalms.'  Dr.  Chalmers,  who  was  greatly  amused  with 
the  story,  observed  that  something  parallel  had  occurred  in 
his  own  experience.  While  preaching  one  of  the  Astro- 
nomical Discourses,  he  noticed  among  the  audience  a  plain, 
honest,  godly  woman  who  lived  in  a  close  ofi^  the  Gallowgate, 
and  with  whom  he  was  well  acquainted.  She  was'  one  of  a 
little  company  who  attended  a  simple  religious  service  which 
he  sometimes  conducted  in  the  neighborhood.  The  Doctor 
felt  an  irresistible  desire  to  know  what  Janet  thought  of  the 
sermon,  as  he  was  quite  sure  that  it  was  above  her  reach, 
and  he  knew  that  he  would  not  require  to  ask  her  opinion, 
for,  being  a  frank,  outspoken  person,  she  would  not  fail  to 
give  it  of  her  own  accord.  A  day  or  two  after,  he  threw 
himself  in  her  way,  when  he  soon  got  what  he  was  in  quest 
of.  '  Weel,  Sir,  I  was  hearing  ye  in  the  Laigh  Kirk  the 
ither  day ;  I  canna  say  that  I  liket  ye  sae  weel  as  in  our  bit 
placey  here — I  canna  say  that  I  understood  ye  a'thegither 
— but,  ae  Sir,  there  was  something  unco  suitable  and  satis- 
fyin'  in  the  psalms.'  Dr.  Chalmers  was  evidently  delighted 
with  the  thought  that  her  spiritual  instinct  had  fastened 
on  what  could  really  profit  her ;  and  that,  though  she  had 


f.-)6  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  io45 

derived  no  advantage  from  his  sermon,  she  had  not  been  sent 
empty  away." 

With  all  his  social  cheerfulness  and  beaming  joy,  there 
were  tokens  not  a  few  of  an  internal  conflict — glimpses  of  an 
inward  desolation  which  told  unmistakably  that,  like  David, 
he  felt  himself  to  be  a  stranger  upon  this  earth.  "  I  would 
not  live  alway,"  was  a  sentence  often  uttered.  "  What  a 
vv'ilderness  the  world  is  to  the  heart  with  all  it  has  to  inspire 
happiness  I  I  have  a  great  and  growing  sense  of  desolation.* 
What  a  marvelous  solitude  every  man  bears  about  with  him ; 
and  then  that  other  and  mysterious  seclusion — the  intercepting 
vail  between  us  and  the  Deity.  You  would  think  [speaking 
in  a  hesitating  tone]  that  He  w^ould  delight  to  manifest  him- 
self to  His  creatures.  No  doubt  the  obstacle  must  be  in  the 
subjective — the  clearer  the  reflecting  medium,  the  brighter 
the  manifestations.  That  is  strikingly  put  in  Matthew,  '  the 
pure  in  heart,  they  shall  see  God.'  *  *  *  I  look  on  it  as 
a  strong  proof  of  our  alienation  from  God,  how  short  a  time 
we  can  sustain  a  direct  contemplation  of  Him ;  what  a 
mighty  transformation  when  the  vail  of  outer  things  shall  be 
withdrawn,  and  we  stand  naked  and  alone  before  Him  with 
Avhom  we  have  to  do  I" 

Into  the  peace  and  rest  of  the  Sabbath  Dr.  Chalmers 
entered  with  a  peculiar  joy.  Besides  his  usual  evening  in- 
terviews with  his  children  in  his  study,  there  was  one  duty 
of  a  peculiar  kind  thrown  always  upon  the  afternoon  of  this 
day.  He  never  received  the  notification  of  a  death  without 
writing  to  some  member  of  the  afllicted  family,  and  these 
letters  of  sympathy  were  always  written  on  the  Sabbath 
evenings.  "  I  take  it  very  kind,"  he  wrote  to  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Chalmers  of  Dunfermline,  "  that  you  have  sent  me  the 

*  "  I  am  conversant  more  with  principles  than  with  persons.  I 
begin  to  suspect  that  the  intensity  of  my  own  pursuits  has  isolated  me 
from  Uving  men,  and  that  there  is  a  want  of  that  amalgamation  about 
me  which  cements  the  companionships  and  closer  brotherhoods  tha? 
obtain  in  society." — HorcB  SabbaticcBy  vol.  i.  p.  59, 


^T.  65.  LETTER  TO  MRS.  JOHNSTOiN.  457 

notice  of  an  event  so  interesting,  though  painfully  interesting 
to  your  family,  I  know  not  a  more  touching  expression  of 
confidence  from  one  human  being  to  another,  than  when  the 
sorrow  which  oppresses  his  heart  is  communicated  to  his 
fellow,  and  this  in  the  expectation  that  he  will  sympathize 
with  and  share  it.  This  is  the  only  explanation  I  can  give 
of  a  feeling  which  I  have  long  experienced,  that  whenever 
I  receive  the  intimation  of  a  death,  I  am  by  that  very  act 
domesticated  with  the  house  of  mourning  whence  it  comes, 
invited  in  short  to  partake  along  with  its  inmates  in  the 
griefs  and  emotions  of  our  common  humanity. 

"  Give  my  best  regards  to  Mrs.  Chalmers ;  and  with  earnest 
prayer  that  these  visitations  may  lead  us  all  to  prepare  for 
the  eternal  and  the  abiding  home  of  the  blessed — I  ever  am, 
my  dear  Sir,  yours  very  truly,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

On  receiving  the  intimation  of  the  death  of  J.  J.  Gurney, 
Esq.,  he  wrote  thus  to  Mrs.  Johnston  :* 

Edinburgh,  January  llth,  1847. 

*'  My  dear  Mrs.  Johnston — This  is  a  very  sad  and  truly 
solemnizing  event.  Your  letter  gave  me  the  first  intelligence 
of  it,  and  I  afterward  on  the  same  day  read  his  obituary  it 
the  Universe  Newspaper.  The  sensation  created  by  his  death 
must  be  very  deep  and  very  general.  For  myself,  I  feel  it  to 
be  a  very  great  personal  bereavement — standing  as  he  did 
among  the  best  and  highest  of  my  Christian  friends  both  in 
respect  of  intelligence  and  worth.  Ever  since  1833,  when  I 
spent  some  days  at  Earlham,  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  en- 
joying his  friendship.  Very  pleasant  was  he  at  all  times  to 
me,  and  the  remembrance  of  him  is  sweet. 

"  But  what  precious  alleviations  are  attendant  on  the  loss 
of  him  though  near  and  dear  to  us — translated  from  a  world 
of  sin  and  sorrow,  and  now  among  the  glorified  spirits  of  the 
just  made  perfect.  I  associate  with  Mr.  Gurney  almost  all  the 
great  and  good  men  in  England  whom  I  had  the  happiness 

*  Daughter  of  Sir  T.  F.  Buxton. 
VOL.  IV. — U 


458  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALxMBRS.  1845. 

of  knowing — your  dear  and  venerable  father,  Mr.  Wilberforce, 
Mr.  Clarkson,  and  Mr.  Foster,  who  still  survives,  and  whose 
acquaintance  I  made  in  Dorsetshire  :  add  to  these  Mrs.  Fry. 
But  it  is  only  now  that  I  learned,  and  from  you,  of  Mr. 
Hoare's  death,  who  along  with  Mrs.  Hoare  (one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  feminine  Christianity  I  ever  met)  suffered  so 
much  from  the  death  of  their  eldest  son.  What  a  lesson  does 
the  disappearance  of  all  this  society  convey  ;  what  a  call  to 
labor  for  the  meat  which  endureth,  and  to  disengage  our  af- 
fections from  a  world  that  passeth  so  speedily  away  I 

"  I  take  it  exceedingly  kind  that  you  should  have  thought 
of  me  on  this  melancholy  occasion.  It  was  very  good  in  you 
thus  to  single  me  out  for  a  letter  on  a  subject  which  went 
so  near  to  my  heart ;  and  I  felt  it  exceedingly  genial  when 
you  told  me  of  your  dear  son,  and  adverted  to  his  baptism. 
It  gives  me  a  certain  sense  of  the  affinity  of  relationship  to 
you  and  yours.  It  is  my  earnest  prayer  that  he  may  pass 
through  the  world  uninfected  by  its  profligacy  and  vices, 
and  that  after  a  manhood  of  usefulness  and  honor,  he  may 
be  admitted  to  the  glories  of  an  everlasting  inheritance. 
Meanwhile,  as  friends  drop  away  from  us,  let  us  draw  nearer 
together — more  resolved  to  befriend  and  support  each  other 
throughout  the  remainder  of  this  short  and  uncertain  pilgrim- 
age.— Ever  believe  me,  my  dear  Mrs.  Johnston,  yours  very 
affectionately  and  truly, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

FAMILY  CORRESPONDENCE. 

On  the  17th  March,  1845,  Dr.  Chalmers  made  the  follow- 
ing entry  in  his  Journal  :  "  My  birth-day  ;  I  have  got  over 
the  half  of  my  seventh  decade,  being  now  sixty-five,  and 
have  entered  on  what  I  call  the  Sabbath  afternoon.  My 
God,  may  it  have  a  more  Sabbatical  character  than  my  Sab- 
bath forenoon  has  had.  I  would  henceforth  live  wholly  unto 
thee."  The  outward  Sabbath  quiet  was  not  given  to  him, 
but  there  came  an  increasing  gentleness  and  spirituality  which 
gave  few  more  affecting  exhibitions  of  its  depth  and  tender- 
ness than  in  the  peculiar  anxiety  which  he  now  manifested 
for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  his  children.  Every  reader  of  his 
biblical  compositions  must  have  been  struck  with  the  fre- 
quency with  which  the  topic  is  there  reverted  to,  and  the  fervor 
with  which  so  many  petitions  are  presented.  His  letters  of 
this  period  present  the  same  characteristics.  To  his  eldest 
daughter,  who,  in  1836,  had  been  united  in  marriage  to  the 
•writer  of  these  Memoirs,  he,  in  1841,  addressed  the  following 
letter  : 

"Burntisland,  June  \st,  1841. 
"  My  dear,  Anne — This  is  an  important  change  that  has 
taken  place  in  my  state  and  circumstances,  now  that  I  am 
disengaged  from  all  the  public  business  of  the  Church.  It 
is  true  that  the  time  heretofore  devoted  to  this  department 
I  could  find  ample  occupation  for  in  the  work  of  literary  prep- 
aration both  for  the  press  and  for  my  Chair  ;  and  I  shall  feel 
it  my  duty  to  do  a  great  deal  more,  if  spared,  in  each  of  these 
walks  than  I  have  been  able  to  do  hitherto.     Yet  important 


460  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

as  these  are,  I  have  the  urgent  sense  of  its  being  a  still  prior 
and  preferable  duty  to  do  all  which  in  me  lies,  not  for  my 
own  personal  Christianity  alone,  but  for  that  of  my  immediate 
relatives  and  friends.  For  these  last  thirty  years,  there  has 
been  always  a  strong  under-current  of  earnest  and  anxious 
feeling  in  this  direction,  but  sadly  impeded  and  overborne 
among  the  fatigues  and  distractions  and  manifold  calls  on  my 
attention  and  time  to  which  my  various  official  duties  exposed 
me.  These  have  all  been  removed,  and  that  which  was  but 
an  under-current  before,  I  desire,  throughout  the  remainder 
of  my  days,  to  have  full  and  free  vent  in  every  possible  thing 
which  I  can  either  devise  or  do  for  the  religious  wellbeing 
whether  of  myself  or  of  my  family.  And  I  do  hope  that  the 
consideration  of  the  few  years  (it  may  be  much  shorter)  which 
I  have  to  live  in  this  world  may  incline  one  and  all  of  them  to 
second  my  earnest  wishes  for  the  good  of  their  imperishable 
spirits — for  the  high  end,  in  comparison  with  which  all  other 
objects  sink  into  insignificance — their  preferment  to  that  state 
of  blessedness,  in  which  it  will  be  our  everlasting  employment 
to  glorify  God,  and  to  enjoy  him  forever. 

"  I  have  not  forgotten  the  impression  made  upon  me  by  a 
short  visit,  of  some  years  back,  from  Dr.  Hanna,*  and  whence 
I  could  gather  how  intimately  religion  was  blended  and  iden- 
tified with  his  moral  being — forming  part  and  parcel,  as  it 
were,  of  the  element  in  which  he  breathed.  I  am  quite  sure 
that  when  such  is  the  pervading  tone  of  all  the  inmates  in 
any  household,  it  forms  the  hish  road  to  a  well-conditioned 
and  happy  family.  It  is  a  condition  which  I  long,  and  with 
the  grace  of  God,  will  labor  to  realize  ;  for  Heaven  forbid 
that  the  purposed  Sabbath  of  my  life,  which  should  have 
commenced  sooner,  and  which  I  trust  will  only  be  terminated 
by  death — Heaven  forbid  that  it  should  be  limited  in  its 
effects  to  the  selfish  object  of  my  own  enjoyment,  or  my  own 
preparation  for  the  happiness  of  an  immortal  state.  My  long- 
ing desire  is,  that  others  also,  and  especially  those  who  are 
*  The  Rev.  Dr.  Hanna  of  Belfast. 


^T.  65.  FAMILY  CORRESPONDENCE.  461 

nearest  and  dearest  to  me,  should  receive  an  impulse  in  the 
same  direction,  and  be  fellow-travellers  along  with  me  to  a 
blissful  eternity. — I  ever  am,  my  dear  Anne,  yours  very 
afiectionately  and  truly,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

As  one  step  toward  the  accomplishment  of  this  longing 
desire,  he  commenced  a  series  of  monthly  letters,  a  copy  of 
which  was  to  be  addressed  to  each  of  his  daughters.  The 
public  demands  upon  his  time,  however,  became  so  urgent, 
that  these  letters  were  not  continued,  and  we  have  only  the 
following  specimen  to  offer  : 

"  Burntisland,  JuJy  2Uh,  1841. 

"  My  dear  Anne — It  is  true  that  the  spirit  is  the  alone 
effectual  agent  in  the  work  of  conversion,  and  without  His 
agency  nothing  can  be  done  to  any  good  purpose.  But  this 
doctrine,  so  far  from  superseding  diligence  in  the  use  of  means, 
may  supply  the  alone  consideration  which  can  justify  that 
diligence  and  make  it  rational.  Suppose  it  were  true  that 
in  no  possible  way  we  could  be  made  savingly  to  understand 
the  Bible — then  all  inducement  to  the  reading  of  it  would  be 
thereby  done  away.  But,  instead  of  this,  let  us  suppose  that 
there  was  one  way,  and  that  was  the  enlightening  of  the 
Spirit  given  to  our  prayers — this  would  instantly  give  a  mean- 
ing and  a  motive  to  the  exercise  of  dealing  with  our  Bibles  ; 
and  the  perusal  of  the  sacred  volume,  accompanied  with  sup- 
plication for  light  upon  it  from  on  high,  would  instantly  be- 
come a  hopeful  and  a  reasonable  employment.  And,  accord- 
ingly, if  I  were  asked  to  specify  the  likeHest  prescription  for 
the  wellbeing  and  prosperity  of  the  soul,  I  should  say  it  was 
a  prayerful  reading  of  the  Bible. 

"  That  we  do  stand  in  need  of  this  supernal  aid,  we  might 
well  be  convinced  of  from  daily  experience,  for  without  it 
how  often  might  we  read  again  and  again  its  most  familiar 
and  best  known  passages,  and  yet  remain  blind  all  the  while 
to  the  veriest  simphcities  of  God's  word.     I  was  much  struck 


462  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  J 84.5. 


with  this  when  reading  the  evidence  of  Mr,  Pnrves  of  Jed- 
burgh the  other  day  on  the  subject  of  revivals.  *  *  *  What 
impressed  me  in  it  was,  how  seldom,  after  all,  faith  in  God's 
sayings,  which  is  surely  a  very  obvious,  simple,  and  intelli- 
gible idea — how  seldom  it  is  realized  by  any  of  us.  People 
think  they  believe  in  them,  because  they  so  far  acquiesce  as 
not  to  gainsay  them  ;  and  yet  with  this  acquiescence,  an  ac- 
quiesence  so  resolute  and  strong,  that  you  would  be  shocked 
to  utter  aught  in  contradiction  to  them,  there  may  yet  be  no 
faith  For  let  there  be  but  belief  in  the  gospel,  and  where 
lies  the  hinderance  to  peace,  joy,  confidence  in  the  good-will 
of  a  reconciled  Father  even  at  this  moment  ?  Why  post- 
pone all  this  ?  Why  not  rely  on  the  good  tidings  of  great 
joy,  and  be  glad  accordingly  ?  How  long  shall  we  put  ofT 
trusting  in  God  for  that  redemption  which  is  through .  the 
blood  of  Jesus,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sin  ?  It  may  startle 
you  to  be  told,  that  this  last  question  is  tantamount  to  the 
following  : — How  long  shall  we  persist  in  holding  God  to  be 
a  liar?  He  himself  distinctly  reduces  it  to  this  alternative, 
He  tells  us  of  the  record  that  He  has  given  of  his  Son,  even 
that  He  has  given  us  eternal  life,  and  that  this  life  is  in  His 
Son  ;  and  He  complains  of  being  made  a  liar  by  all  who 
won't  believe  this  (John  v.  10,  11.)  This  one  might  think 
is  bringing  salvation  very  near  to  us.  It  is  telling  us  to 
take  and  live,  to  trust  and  be  satisfied.  On  this  footing, 
and  it  is  the  true  one,  there  should  be  an  instant  translation 
from  death  to  life,  from  darkness  to  the  marvelous  light  of 
the  Gospel.  Let  us  not  think  that  the  way  of  being  washed 
from  our  sins  is  any*  thing  more  complex  or  circuitous  than 
this,  else  we  fall  into  the  error  of  Naaman,  the  Syrian,  when 
told  to  wash  him  from  his  leprosy  in  the  waters  of  Jordan. 
We  are  washed  from  our  sins  through  the  blood  of  Christ 
(Rev.  i.  5.)  But  this  is  through  faith  in  His  blood  (Pwom. 
iii.  25.  Let  us  so  believe,  and  so  shall  it  be  done  unto  us. 
These  are  plain  sayings — yet  how  few  think  of  a  salvation 
BO  nigh,  and  so  placed  by  God  within  our  reach,  even  that 


.ET.  65  FAMILY  CORRESPONDENCE.  463 

God  who  offers  and  entreats,  and  beseeches  and  commands, 
nay,  threatens  it  upon  our  acceptance.  What  need  of  prayer 
then  that  the  scales  might  fall  from  our  eyes,  which  hinder 
us  from  seeing  this  great  salvation,  and  from  beholding  the 
wondrous  things  contained  in  the  book  of  God's  law.  Read 
and  pray  then  ;  ask  till  you  receive,  seek  till  you  find,  knock 
till  the  door  be  opened  to  you,  and  to  hasten  the  wished-for 
consummation,  chide  yourself  out  of  your  unbelief  by  the  con- 
sideration that  it  is  dishonoring  to  God's  truth.  For  the 
opposite  of  this,  read  Rom.  iv.  19—23,  and  learn  from  this  pas- 
sage how  thoroughly  God's  glory  and  your  comfort  are  at 
one.  May  you  obtain  precious  faith.  May  Christ  be  found 
in  you. — I  am,  my  dear  Anne,  yours  very  truly, 

"Thomas  Chalmers," 

Although  a  systematic  correspondence  was  relinquished, 
there  was  no  diminution,  but  the  reverse,  in  the  solicitude 
felt  for  his  children's  religions  welfare.  This  was  touchingly 
educed  by  the  death  of  a  beloved  infant  in  my  own  family. 

"  DUNKELD,  April  30th,  1842. 

"  My  very  dear  Anne — This  is  a  sad  privation  ;  and  I 
can  not  adequately  express  how  much  we  all  feel  for  you.  I 
have  often  marveled  at  the  forbearance  of  God,  in  that 
though  for  nearly  thirty  years  a  family  man,  death  should  for 
all  that  time  have  made  no  inroad  upon  my  own  household  ; 
and  little  did  I  expect  that  the  first  of  these  visitations  was 
to  be  on  the  persons  of  my  grandchildren — you  being  the 
nearest  and  the  principal  sufferer.  May  He  sustain,  and, 
above  all,  may  He  sanctify  you  under  it ;  and  superadding 
the  influences  of  His  grace  to  the  aflecting  demonstrations  of 
His  providence,  may  this  heavy  trial,  not  joyous  but  griev- 
ous, yield  unto  you  abundantly  the  peaceable  fruits  of  right- 
eousness. 

"  Perhaps  a  very  few  lines  from  your  own  hand  could 
inform  us  how  you  all  are,  and  in  particular  Tommy,  who  is 


464  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

the  object  of  great  anxiety  to  us  all,  and  for  whose  recovery 
and  establishment  of  health  I  daily  pray. 

*'  The  present,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  is  a  great  occasion, 
and  may,  in  the  hands  of  the  .Divine  Spirit,  become  a  great 
era  in  your  spiritual  history.  For  myself,  I  have  no  doubt 
that  your  babe  is  in  heaven — where  those  smiles  which  glad- 
dened you  here  may  again  open  upon  you.  The  pitying 
Saviour  who  loved  children,  and  welcomes  all  who  approach 
Him — to  Him  would  I  commit  you.  Cast  yourself  on  Him, 
and  He  will  give  you  a  place  and  a  mansion  in  his  unsuffer- 
ing  kingdom. 

*'  I  offer  you  these  considerations,  for  there  are  none  other 
but  such  as  these  which  can  be  of  any  real  or  abiding  efScacy. 
As  Wilberforce  says,  the  faith  of  immortality  gives  to  every 
mind  which  cherishes  it  a  certain  firmness  of  texture.  Lay 
hold,  then,  of  eternal  life,  by  laying  hold  of  Christ  as  your 
propitiation.  And  may  the  fruit  of  this  bitter  dispensation 
be  the  work  of  faith  in  you  with  power. 

"  '  Whom  God  loveth  he  chastcneth.'  I  remember  being 
much  struck  many  years  ago  with  an  Exposition  of  John  xv. 
2,  by  Dr.  Campbell  of  Edinburgh.  Our  Saviour  there  says 
of  the  great  spiritual  husbandman,  that  every  branch  which 
beareth  fruit  he  purgeth  it,  that  it  may  bring  forth  more 
fruit.  He  pruneth  it ;  he  cuts  off  some  of  its  lateral  or 
smaller  branches,  that  the  vegetable  juice  may  not  run  to 
luxuriance  in  a  wrong  direction,  but  may  so  pervade  the 
whole  as  will  contribute  most  to  the  nourishment  and  vigor 
of  the  tree.  And  in  like  manner  do  our  affections  move  side- 
ways or  downwardly  to  the  objects  which  are  on  earth  and 
around  us  ;  and  God,  in  the  exercise  of  a  wise  and  skillful 
husbandry,  is  often  pleased  to  sever  or  cut  off  these  objects, 
that  our  affections  may  take  an  upward  and  a  heavenward 
direction  to  himself  May  such  be  your  blessed  experience  ; 
and  the  medicine,  though  severe,  will  prove  salutary,  and  the 
instrument  of  health  to  your  soul. 

'•  Give  my  best  and  most  affectionate  regards  to  Mamma 


vET.  Go.  FAMILY  CORRESPONDENCE.  465 


and  Mr.  Hanria  ;   and  tell  dear  Tommy  how  much   I  love 
him,  and  pray  for  his  being  good. 

May  God,  the  giver  of  ail  grace,  fix  and  perpetuate  every 
good  impression  which  the  events  of  his  providence  are  fitted 
to  awaken. — I  am,  my  very  dear  Anne,  yours  most  affec- 
tionately, Thomas  Chalmers." 

In  1839,  Dr.  Chalmers's  second  daughter  was  married  to 
the  Pwev.  John  Mackenzie,  at  that  time  minister  of  the  parish 
of  Dunkeld,  in  Perthshire.  Immediately  after  the  marriage 
he  proceeded  on  his  Church  Extension  tour  in  the  north  of 
Scotland,  from  which  he  writes  to  Mrs.  Mackenzie  : 

"Inverness,  August  28ih,  1839. 
"  My  dearest  Eliza — *  =*  ^  Bnt  let  me  stop  all  further 
description  of  my  travels,  and  conclude  this  letter  with  the 
expression  of  ray  earnest  wishes  for  your  highest  wellbeinsr. 
I  have  often  felt  it  as  one  great  evil  of  too  public  a  life,  that 
it  dissevered  one  from  his  family  ;  and  when  I  think  how 
highly  favored  I  have  been  in  that,  though  twenty-seven 
years  a  family  naan,  I  have  never  yet  been  exposed  in  my 
household  to  the  visitation  of  death,  I  deeply  feel  that  such  a 
lengthened  opportunity  should  have  been  consecrated  more  to 
the  culture  and  preparation  of  those  immortal  spirits  over 
whom  I  am  appointed  to  watch.  Let  me  hope  that  you  will 
not  in  your  new  circumstances  neglect  this  greatest  of  all 
concerns  ;  and  while  I  am  far  from  wishing  that  you  should 
overtask  yourself  with  the  duties  either  of  the  house  or  of  the 
parish,  I  can  not  but  rejoice  that  you  are  so  much  in  the 
way  of  all  that  stands  most  connected  with  the  things  of  faith 
and  of  eternity.  With  the  aim  fixed  on  a  better  world,  not 
only  is  the  happiness  of  the  future  but  that  of  the  present  hfe 
most  effectually  provided  for  ;  and  the  power  of  him  who  has 
chosen  God  in  Christ  for  his  portion  is  in  itself  a  fulfillment 
of  the  saying,  that  godliness  hath  the  promise  of  the  life  which 
now  is  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to  come. — I  am,  my  dearest 
Eliza,  yours  very  affectionately,  Thomas  Chalmers." 


466  xMEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  J845. 

"BURNTISLAXD,  September  2Btk,  1841. 

"  My  dearest  Eliza — There  is  doubtless  much  of  the  re- 
serve that  obtains  in  conversation  on  religious  subjects  to  be 
ascribed  to  our  stale  of  spiritual  inanition.  It  is  out  of  the 
fullness  or  abundance  of  the  heart  that  the  mouth  speaketh  ; 
and,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  that  the  reformation  of  this 
matter  be  rightly  gone  about — that  we  begin  at  the  beginning. 
It  is  with  this  as  with  every  other  department  of  practical 
Christianity.  Whatever  good  fruit  we  are  aiming  after,  we 
must  make  the  tree  good  that  the  fruit  may  be  good.  It  is 
well  that  our  sense  of  want  and  helplessness  should  thus 
throw  us  back  on  the  deep  and  fundamental  articles  of  our 
faith,  and  that  we  should  thus  be  made  to  see  in  every 
attempt  at  being  right,  another  experimental  proof  of  the 
doctrine  of  regeneration,  or  of  the  necessity  that,  to  be 
as  we  ought,  we  must  be  born  again  and  become  new 
creatures. 

"  I  feel  that  this  is  being  very  general  ;  but  not  more  so 
than  that  most  pregnant  of  all  verses,  '  God  will  give  His 
Spirit  to  them  who  ask  it.'  Let  us  cry,  therefore,  as  we 
can  ;  and  it  is  as  you  say  to  prayer  we  must  add  watchful- 
ness— watchfulness  for  the  Spirit  as  well  as  prayer  for  Him. 
And  this  gives  me  to  feel  the  special  importance  of  the  last 
clause  of  Eph.  vi.  1 8 — '  watching  thereunto  with  all  per- 
severance.' 

''  Still  it  is  furthermore  of  mighty  importance  to  learn 
what  are  our  specific  wants,  that  we  may  state  them  spe- 
cifically before  God,  and  that  we  may  afterward  watch  as 
specifically  for  the  supply  thereof  Believest  thou  that  I  am 
able  to  do  this  ?  was  the  question  put  by  our  Saviour  to  the 
man  who  asked  a  cure,  and  according  to  his  particular  faith, 
so  was  it  done  unto  him.  Whatever  the  impediment  or 
infirmity  may  be,  let  us  ascertain  it,  and  pray  for  its  removal. 
This  will  give  rise  to  that  process  of  discipline  and  cultiva- 
tion in  which  what  is  called  experimental  religion  mainly 
lie3      I  have  had  several  talks  with  the  children  here,  and 


JET.  65.  FAMLIY  CORRESPONDENCE.  467 

am  not  discouraged   by   the  results  of  these. — I   am,   ray 
dearest  Eliza,  yours  very  affectionately, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

From  the  letters  to  his  eldest  unmarried  daughter,  who 
possessed  much  of  his  own  genius,  we  select  the  follow- 
ing— 

"Edinburgh,  November  lltk,  1838. 

"  My  dearest  Grace — I  received  your  valued  letter  ; 
and,  in  return,  I  have  to  say,  that  the  first  essential  to  a 
pleasant  and  productive  employment  of  your  time  is  the 
regular  and  systematic  distribution  of  it.  This  does  not 
supersede  the  relaxations  of  society,  domestic  concerns,  light 
reading,  and  exercise  out  of  doors.  The  truth  is,  that  the 
zest  of  the  last  is  greatly  heightened  by  the  previous  tension 
and  fatigue  which  you  may  have  incurred  throughout  those 
parts  of  the  day  which  are  given  to  the  more  serious  pursuits 
of  instruction  and  self  improvement.  Regulate  your  hours 
then  ;  for  it  were  quite  vain  to  offer  any  advice  to  those  who 
will  not  relinquish  the  habit  of  living  at  random,  and  living 
as  they  list. 

"  With  this  as  my  great  preliminary  advice,  I  would 
further  recommend — 1.  That  the  first  time  of  your  day 
should  be  devoted  to  religious  meditation  and  prayer,  both  of 
which  would  be  mightily  helped  by  a  little  serious  practical 
reading.  Of  course,  I  suppose  a  regular  progress  through 
the  Bible  ;  but,  over  and  above  this,  a  pious  practical  com- 
mentary, though  only  of  a  single  verse  each  morning,  might 
tell  impressively  on  the  heart.  I  give  as  samples,  '  Bridges 
on  the  119th  Psalm,'  'Home  on  the  Psalms,'  Doddridge's 
'  Family  Expositor,'  Scott's  and  Henry's  '  Bibles.'  The 
same  in  the  evening  as  well  as  morning. 

''2.  One  or  two  hours  of  solid  reading — such  as  the 
Evidences  of  Christianity — its  doctrines  expanded  so  as  to 
suit  a  general  reader  :  as  '  Symington  on  the  Atonement ;' 
«  Owen  on  the  Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;'      «  Owen  on  the 


468  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  184.5. 

Person  of  Christ,'  &c.  Intellectual  literature — as  Reid's, 
Stewart's,  and  even  Brown's  *  Works  ;'  Foster's  '  Essays ;' 
'  Chalmers  on  Endowments  and  Establishments,'  &c.,  &c. 

"3.  All  proper  female  work — as  the  management  of  cow- 
heels  in  the  kitchen,  and  stocking-heels  in  the  drawing-room, 
the  making  of  puddings  in  the  one  place,  and  of  pin-cushions 
in  the  other  ;  the  orderly  arrangement  of  all  your  articles  in 
drawers,  and  on  mantle-pieces,  and  table-heads  ;  the  proper 
keeping  of  accounts,  with  as  much  letter-writing  as  is  in- 
cumbent upon  you. 

"  4.  After  standing  acquitted  of  these,  I  give  you  great 
license  as  to  all  proper  and  innocent  recreations  ;  and  I  ask 
you  to  make  trial  for  a  week  of  the  regularity  I  now  pre- 
scribe, and  see  whether  there  is  not  a  charm  in  it  which 
might  well  convince  us  of  the  immense  resources  both  for 
improvement  and  enjoyment  that  have  been  placed  within 
our  reach  by  a  kind  Providence. 

«'iV.  B. — I  would  rank  biography  and  even  history  as 
light  reading,  along  with  imaginative  literature,  such  as 
poetry  and  a  few  good  and  right  novels.  I  will  allow  yon, 
however,  to  make  Cowper's  'Poems'  and  'Paradise  Lost' 
tell  for  solid  reading.  Tell  me  what  you  think  of  Thomson's 
*  Seasons.' 

"  And  now  my  last  advice  to  you  is,  self-denial,  or  the 
habit  of  giving  up  your  own  will  first  to  the  will  of  God  ; 
and  then,  in  things  lawful,  even  in  things  indifferent,  to  the 
will  of  others  also,  I  promise  you  the  greatest  enjoyment 
from  the  success  of  such  a  discipline;  and  remember  what  I 
have  often  felt  to  be  a  most  precious  connection  between  two 
things  in  Christianity — the  connection  between  obedience  and 
spiritual  discernment,  in  virtue  of  which  I  should  look  as  the 
fruit  of  the  sacrifice  that  I  now  recommend  for  a  clearer  view 
of  the  Gospel  and  its  method  of  salvation. 

"  Yours  most  truly, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 


JET.  65.  FAMILY  CORRESPONDENCE.  469 

"  Edinburgh,  January  ^0(h,  1842, 
"  My  very  dear  Grace — I  am  exceedingly  struck-,  on 
the  comparison  of  your  state  with  mine,  at  the  variety  of 
human  states  and  experiences.  I  have  no  difficulty  in  fill- 
ing up  every  hour  with  business,  and  business,  too,  which 
stands  related  to  duty  and  good  objects,  and  be  interested  all 
the  while  in  the  performance.  But  I  do  feel  a  great  difficulty 
in  upholding  converse  with  God,  directly  and  devotionally ; 
or,  in  the  immediate  exercise  of  spiritual  contemplation  for 
any  length  of  time.  Now  your  case  seems  to  be  the  reverse 
of  this.  I  have  heard  you  complain  that  you  could  not  feel  an 
interest  in  the  routine  of  outward  duties,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  for  hours  together  you  could  engage  in  prayer  and  medi- 
tation For  myself,  I  feel  the  utmost  desirousness  after  such 
a  habit  and  capacity  as  this — conscious  as  I  am  how  very 
greatly  I  am  deficient  therein  ;  and  when  reading  such  lives 
as  those  of  Brainerd  and  Doddridge,  have  often  stood  amazed, 
I  could  almost  say  envious,  of  their  power  to  sustain  a  real 
and  spiritual  intercourse  with  heaven  for  large  portions  of 
a  whole  day.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that 
even  Brainerd  testified  to  the  great  importance  of  a  right 
and  systematic  distribution  of  time,  and  filling  up  each  sec- 
tion of  it  with  its  own  proper  work,  even  for  a  healthful  re- 
ligious state  of  the  soul, 

'«  Both  are  best ;  and  of  the  cultivation  of  both  we  have 
the  best  and  highest  examples.  What  a  man  both  of  per- 
formance and  prayers,  was  the  Apostle  Paul  ;  but,  greatest  of 
all,  can  aught  be  more  instructive  than  the  mingled  life  of  our 
Saviour,  of  whom  it  is  so  often  recorded  that,  after  a  day  spent 
in  the  works  and  labors  of  love,  he  retired  from  the  world, 
and  spent  whole  nights  in  prayer  to  His  Father,  the  doing 
of  whose  will  was  meat  and  drink  to  Him.  Let  us  grow 
more  and  more  in  a  conformity  to  His  blessed  image. — My 
dearest  Grace,  yours  very  truly, 

«<  Thomas  Chalmers." 


470  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

"  GouRocK  House,  near  Greenock,  July  2ith,  1845, 
"  My  very  dear  Grace — I  have  not  forgotten  j-our  birth- 
day ;  and  it  is  my  firm  belief,  that  both  you  and  I  are  alive 
to  the  solemn  thoughts  which  the  recurrence  of  every  such 
occasion  ought  to  awaken.  There  is,  in  truth,  a  great  prac- 
tical delusion  in  the  prevalent  system  of  human  life.  We 
look  at  things  as  if  by  an  inverted  vision — investing  time 
with  all  the  worth  and  magnitude  of  eternity  ;  while  eter- 
nity, as  if  by  the  optical  law  of  distance,  shrinks  into  the 
littleness  and  insignificance  of  time.  This  is  not  as  it  should 
be  ;  and  to  protect  ourselves  from  the  enchantment  of  such 
a  treacherous  and  delusive  imagination,  let  us  ever  keep  by 
the  side  of  Him  who  alone  has  the  words  and  the  gift  of  life 
everlasting.  All  would  be  well  did  we  but  attain  the  habit 
of  the  Apostle,  in  living  a  life  of  faith  on  the  Son  of  God. — 
Ever  believe  me,  my  very  dear  Grace,  yours  very  affection- 
ately, Thomas  Chalmers." 

Dr.  Chalmers's  correspondence  with  his  grandson,  my  eld- 
est child,  began  early,  and  was  frequently  sustained,  as  the 
reader  of  the  following  letters  will  find,  in  circumstances  not 
a  little  peculiar  : 

"Burntisland,  Jtuie  21st,  1841. 

*'  My  dear  Tommy — This  is  the  longest  day  in  all  the 
year,  and  it  is  also  the  day  of  the  year  in  which  you  were 
born.  This  day  you  are  four  years  old,  and  we  have  not 
forgotten  it. 

"  As  you  grow  in  years,  you  should  grow  in  knowledge 
and  understanding  ;  but  what  is  still  better  than  this,  you 
should  grow  in  goodness,  and  pray  every  day  that  God  would 
give  you  His  Holy  Spirit  to  make  you  good.    ^  *  * 

"  Give  all  our  kind  regards  to  papa  and  mamma,  and  in 
reply  to  this  letter  you  may  say  a  letter  to  me  back  again, 
which  mamma  will  write. — I  am,  my  very  dear  Tom,  your 
affectionate  grandfather,  Thomas  Chalmers." 


^T.  65.  FAMILY  CORRESPONDENCE.  471 

"  Burntisland,  July  22d,  1841. 

"  My  dear.  Tommy — I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  that  you 
have  got  sore  eyes  again,  and  are  obliged  to  sit,  poor  fellow, 
in  a  dark  room.  But  they  tell  me  you  are  happy  :  and  I 
think  it  quite  a  possible  thing  to  be  happy  even  when  not 
well  and  in  the  dark.  There  is  one  way  of  being  happy, 
and  that  is  the  best  way  of  it,  which  is  to  think  rightly,  and 
think  much  of  God.  He  is  all  goodness  ;  He  made  you  and 
loves  you,  and,  though  you  do  not  see  Him,  He  is  not  far 
from  you,  but  sees  every  thing  you  do,  and  hears  every  thing 
you  say.  We  shall  see  Him  when  we  get  to  heaven ;  and 
there  is  no  sorrow,  no  wickedness  there.  You  can  at  all 
times  pray  to  Him  ;  and  one  thing  you  should  often  pray 
for  is,  that  He  would  make  you  good,  and  so  fit  you  for  His 
company  and  His  friendship  for  evermore.  *  *  *  I  am, 
my  very  dear  boy,  your  most  affectionate  grandfather, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"Edinburgh,  December  3Qih,  1841. 

"  My  dear  little  Tommy — Why  do  you  like  your  hob- 
by-horse better  than  grandpapa  ?  *  You  tell  me  because  it 
is  bigger  than  him  ;  but  so  are  the  haystack  and  the  hill 
that  you  see  from  the  window,  and  any  house  in  the  village 
— these  are  all  bigger  than  grandpapa,  and  will  you  tell  me 
that  you  don't  like  grandpapa  so  well  as  you  do  a  house,  or 
a  hill,  or  a  haystack  I  And  besides,  the  hobby-horse  can  not 
write  letters  to  you  like  grandpapa,  neither  can  he  buy  toys 
for  you  and  send  them  from  Edinburgh  to  Skirling  ;  neither 
can  he  show  you  pictures,  or  do  for  you  any  of  those  things 
which  you  best  like.  Therefore  give  up  this  foolish  argument 
about  bigness,  and  learn  to  like  things  for  a  better  reason 
than  the  mere  size  of  them. 

"  And  what  grandpapa  would  rejoice  to  hear  that  you 

*  "  Dear  little  Tommy  said  that  he  liked  his  hobby-horse  better  than 
me ;  but  retracted  this  afterward,  and  said  that  he  only  liked  it  as  well 
now." — Dr.  Chalmers's  Journal,  of  date  17th  December,  1841. 


472  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1845. 

liked  best,  was  that  you  loved  God  with  all  your  heart  and 
soul.  It  is  He  who  made  all  things,  and  gives  us  all  things 
that  we  enjoy.  He  is  the  author  of  all  our  happiness  here, 
and  if  we  please  Him,  He  will  make  us  eternally  happy 
with  Himself  in  heaven.  Give  Samuel  a  kiss  from  me,  and 
offer  my  kind  love  to  your  mamma.  I  am,  my  dear  little 
boy,  your  afl^ectionatc  grandpapa, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

•'January  lUh,  1841. 

**  My  dear  little  Boy — I  have  two  things  to  say  to 
you  :  First,  you  must  now  learn  to  speak  less  like  a  baby — 
not  g7'andj)a,  but  grandpapa  ;  not  gaie,  but  great  ;  not 
lickle,  but  little.  Recollect  you  are  no  longer  a  babe,  but  a 
boy,  and  you  must  leave  off  your  baby  words  for  Samuel 
Robert,  and  speak  yourself  like  a  man.  But  secondly,  how- 
ever fond  you  are  of  toys — and  I  like  to  see  you  happy  in 
an  innocent  way — remember  that  you  must  prepare  for  the 
business  of  life  ;  and  one  of  the  first  things  you  must  learn 
is  to  read.  The  greatest  use  of  reading  is  to  know  the  words 
of  the  Bible  ;  its  words  are  of  far  higher  worth  than  its 
pictures.  The  God  whom  it  is  your  duty  to  please  and  obey 
wrote  all  these  words  by  the  hands  of  His  servants  :  and  all 
good  people  learn,  by  reading  this  book,  the  way  to  heaven : 
and  you  should  learn  now  how  to  begin,  and  what  you  must 
do  to  inherit  eternal  life  there.  Jesus  Christ  likes  young 
children,  and  you  should  think  of  Him,  and  pray  to  God  for 
His  sake  to  make  you  good  and  willing  to  do  all  His  will. 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"Burntisland,  July  8th,  1844. 
"  My  dear  Tommy — I  have  just  seen  a  sight  which  if  you 
had  been  present  would,  I  dare  say,  have  frightened  you.  I 
went  down  the  pier  to  see  Dr.  Cunningham  off  in  the  steam- 
boat, which  had  just  come  from  the  other  side.  A  gig-horse 
with  all  its  harness  on,  was  taken  out  of  the  boat  and  landed 


JET.  65.  FAMILY  CORRESPONDENCE.  473 


on  the  pier  ;  but  it  refused  to  go  any  farther,  and  when  the 
men  tried  to  pull  it  by  its  bridle  forward,  it  went  backward 
till  its  hind  feet  got  beyond  the  edge  of  the  pier,  and  down  it 
fell  with  a  tremendous  plunge  into  the  deep  water.  We  all 
ran  to  the  edge  of  the  pier  to  see  what  had  become  of  it.  I 
knew  that  horses  could  swim,  but  then  I  was  afraid  lest  the 
weight  of  the  harness  should  have  sunk  it ;  and  to  be  sure 
it  Avas  very  near  sinking,  for  with  holding  up  its  head  as  high 
as  it  could,  it  scarcely  kept  its  ears  and  nostrils  for  breathing 
above  the  water ;  and,  poor  stupid  thing,  instead  of  swimming 
to  the  shore,  it  swam  out  to  the  sea — upon  which  some  men 
ran  into  a  little  boat  and  rowed  with  all  their  might,  and, 
by  means  of  a  long  boat-hook,  got  hold  of  its  bridle  and  towed 
it  after  them  to  the  end  of  the  pier — upon  which  it  got,  with 
some  difficulty,  on  its  four  legs,  and  was  led,  all  dripping, 
up  to  its  stable.   ^  *  * 

**  Be  a  good  boy — fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments, 
for  this  is  the  whole  duty  of  man. — I  am,  my  dear  Tom, 
your  affectionate  grandfather,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"  Churchill  Dining-Room,*  March  nth,  1845. 

"  My  very  dear  Tommy — This  is  my  birth-day,  and  I 
beg  to  send  you  my  best  wishes — hoping  that  if  God  please, 
you  will  have  a  longer  life  than  grandpapa.  Our  Father  in 
heaven  is  the  giver  and  preserver  of  the  lives  of  every  one 
of  us.   ^^  *  * 

"  Be  a  good  boy,  and  do  not  forget  to  thank  God  in  your 
prayers  for  all  His  goodness  to  you. — I  am,  my  dear  Tommy, 
your  affectionate  grandpapa,  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"To  Master  Thomas  Chalmers  Hamia,  Back  Drawing-Room. 

*  As  scarlet  fever  was  in  the  family  at  Morningside.  it  was  thought 
advisable  to  separate  it  into  two  sections,  one  of  which  occupied  the 
upper  or  drawing-room  story  of  the  house,  and  the  other  the  dining- 
room  story.  For  some  days,  no  intercourse  M^as  permitted.  It  was 
while  matters  were  in  this  condition  that  the  two  following  letters 
were  written. 


474  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  l'845. 

"  DiNi.VG-RooM,  March  18/Ji,  1845. 

"  My  dearest  Tommy — When  I  arrived  in  Edinburgh 
yesterday  I  first  went  to  the  library,  and  got  out  a  very 
amusing  book  for  you — Gulliver's  Travels.  *  *  *  It  is  not  a 
true  history,  but  just  a  story,  or  stories,  made  for  the  reader's 
entertainment.  Gulliver  first  travels  to  the  country  of  the 
Lilliputians,  where,  the  men  and  women  are  not  bigger  than 
grandpapa's  fore-finger,  and  the  babies  not  bigger  than  your 
little  toe,  and  where  they  drive  about  in  coaches  not  near  so 
large  as  a  tea-pot.  He  then  travels  to  a  country  inhabited 
by  giants,  to  whom  Gulliver  is  as  little  a  creature  as  the  Lil- 
liputians were  to  him  :  why,  they  can  take  him  up  with  one 
hand  and  swing  him  back  and  fore  upon  one  of  their  fingers. 
Then  he  travels  to  a  floating  island  called  Laputa  ;  but  I 
am  not  sure  that  you  will  care  so  much  for  this  partof  the  story. 
And  then  he  travels  to  a  country  where  instead  of  the  men  com- 
manding the  horses,  the  horses  command  the  men.  I  don't  like 
this  part  so  well  as  I  do  his  travels  among  the  Lilliputians. 

"  Be  a  good  boy,  and  remember  how  much  you  owe  to  Him 
who  has  made  you  so  much  better. — I  ever  am,  my  dear  Tom, 
your  afiectionate  grandpapa, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  To  Master  Thomas  Chalmers  Haiina,  Back  Draxciiig-Room." 

"  Fairlie,  by  Largs,  June  22(?,  1845. 
"  My  very  dear  Tommy — Though  this  be  Sabbath,  I 
write  you  a  few  sentences  because  this  is  your  birth-day;  and 
I  wish  to  lake  the  opportunity  of  pressing  upon  you  the  consid- 
eration of  the  shortness  of  life,  and  nearness  of  your  latter  end. 
You  are  now  eight  years  old  ;  and  I  want  you  to  reflect  se- 
riously on  this,  that  every  year  by  which  you  get  older,  brings 
you  a  year  nearer  to  death  than  you  were  before.  It  is  there- 
fore my  earnest  prayer,  that  as  you  grow  in  years  and  in 
stature,  you  may  grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  your 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ ;  and  I  would  earnestly  warn 
you  to  remember  your  Creator  in  the  days  of  your  youth,  lest 


vET.  65.  FAMILY  CORRESPONDENCE.  475 

the  evil  days  come,  when  you  shall  say,  I  have  no  pleasure 
in  them.  I  shall  now  leave  this  letter  open  till  to  morrow, 
when  I  mean  to  write  some  more  to  you. 

"  Monday  morning. 

"  You  are  now  eight  years  old,  and  I  am  more  than  eight 
times  older  than  you — for  eight  times  eight  make  sixty-four, 
and  I  am  sixty-five  ;  but  I  can  assure  you,  that  though  you 
should  live  to  be  as  old  as  I  am,  it  is  your  highest  interest,  as 
well  as  solemn  duty,  to  begin  your  preparation  for  eternity 
now,  to  make  no  delay  in  keeping  the  commandments,  and 
observing  the  whole  will  of  God  for  the  salvation  of  man. 

•'  Give  my  kind  regards  to  papa  and  mamma.  I  should 
like  if  T  could  come  soon  to  Skirling.  Perhaps  I  will  in 
autumn.—-!  am,  my  very  dear  Tommy,  your  most  afTection- 
ate  grandfather,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"  Churchill,  June  22d,  1846. 

"  My  dear  Nine-older — I  write  you  because  this  is  your 
birth-day,  and  because  it  is  my  earnest  wish  and  prayer,  that 
by  every  year  you  become  older  you  may  become  so  much 
better  and  wiser.  And  let  me  tell  you,  that  the  beginning  of 
wisdom  is  to  fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments.  There 
is  only  one  book  in  the  world  which  is  able  to  make  you  wise 
unto  salvation,  and  far  the  greatest  use  for  learning  is,  that 
it  enables  you  to  read  the  Bible.  Pwead  it  with  a  good  and 
honest  heart,  and  pray  that  God  would  open  your  understand- 
ing to  understand  it ;  and  by  His  blessing  you  will  attain  to 
that  knowledge  of  Himself,  and  of  His  Son,  which  is  hfe  ever- 
lasting. 

"  I  am  more  than  seven  times  older  than  you,  and  yet  when 
I  look  back  on  my  past  life,  and  I  remember  when  I  was  so 
young  as  three,  I  feel  that  time  is  very  short.  But  eternity 
is  long,  and  will  never  end  ;  and  be  assured  that  to  provide 
for  it  is  the  best  and  highest  of  all  wisdom. 

"  I  wish  you  had  been  at  Craigholm  with  us,  where  I  lately 
spent  three  weeks.    The  railroad  cuts  the  green  into  two  parts 


476  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  184G. 

not  far  from  our  house.  But  we  can  go  from  the  one  part  to 
the  other  under  an  arch,  and  I  should  like  to  stand  in  that 
arch  with  you  at  the  time  when  the  steam-engine  and  all 
the  carriages  are  passing  and  rattling  over  our  heads. — Be- 
lieve me,  my  dear  Tommy,  your  very  affectionate  grandpapa, 

"Thomas   Chalmers. 

"  P.  S. — I  have  got  so  many  new  books  that  I  have  com- 
pletely filled  G  e.  There  are  only  two  and  a  half  shelves 
now  to  fill  in  G,  and  when  these  are  filled  I  must  put  away 
any  more  books  I  get  into  the  empty  shelves  of  the  closet. 
Next  time  you  come  we  must  overhaul  the  old  books  and 
pamphlets  that  are  in  the  garret.* — T.  C. 

"  Another  very  curious  thing  I  have  to  tell  you  of — a 
bird's  nest  in  one  of  our  strawberry  tufts,  near  the  corner 
where  your  old  garden  was.  T  looked  several  times  both  to 
the  eggs  and  afterward  to  the  birds.  I  was  much  afraid 
lest  our  black  cat  should  find  them  out  and  eat  them  :  how- 
ever it  did  not,  and  the  birds  had  leave  to  grow,  till  their 
wings  have  been  formed  for  flight,  and  now  they  are  off. 
But  the  nest  is  still  there  ;  and  I  hope  to  show  it  to  you 
when  you  come  next.  I  never  saw  a  bird's  nest  in  a  bunch 
of  strawberry  leaves  all  my  days  before." 

*  Dr.  Chalmers  imagined  that  the  earliest  faculty  developed  in  his 
grandson  was  the  love  of  order,  to  cultivate  which  he  had  set  times 
appointed  when  they  arranged  together  the  works  of  the  library.  On 
the  Sabbath  evenings  he  always  had  Tommy  alone  with  him  in  his 
study.  Beginning  the  conversation  with  the  "reddings  up,"  or  some 
topic  equally  remote,  Dr.  Chalmers  found  his  way  at  last  to  speak  to 
him  about  religion.  They  then  knelt  down  together,  when  he  prayed 
that  he  himself  might  be  a  true  child  of  God,  and  his  little  grandson  a 
lamb  of  the  Saviour's  flock ;  that  his  health  might  be  improved ;  that  his 
eyes  (weak  at  the  time)  might  not  trouble  him  in  after  life :  that  what- 
ever happened  with  his  bodily  vision,  the  eyes  of  his  understanding 
might  be  opened  to  the  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ;  that  he  might  be 
made  in  God's  hand  an  instrument  for  good :  and  that  when  they  both 
died  and  rose  again,  they  might  stand  side  by  side  on  the  right  hand 
of  the  everlasting  throne. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  SUCCESS  OF  THE  FREE  CHURCH— FINAL  VERDICT 
OF  DR.  CHALMERS  ON  VOLUNTARYISM— THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT  SCHEME  OF  EDUCATION— PAPER  DRAWN 
UP  BY  DR.  CHALMERS— EVIDENCE  BEFORE  THE  SITES 
COMMITTEE— VISIT  TO  LONDON  AND  GLOUCESTER. 
SHIRE— RETURN  TO  EDINBURGH— HIS  LAST  SABBATH 
—HIS  DEATH. 

The  erection  of  the  Free  Church  was  hailed  by  the  Vol- 
untaries as  a  triumphant  evidence  that  state  endowments  are 
not  needed  for  the  support  or  extension  of  Christianity.  And 
there  were  not  a  few  of  their  former  adversaries  who,  sur- 
prised and  impressed  by  the  generosity  which  the  Disruption 
elicited,  were  disposed  to  modify  their  former  conceptions  as 
to  the  limited  power  and  range  of  the  Voluntary  principle. 
Although  Dr.  Chalmers  did  not  partake  in  their  surprise,  he 
threw  his  mind  open  to  any  new  convictions  which  the 
history  of  the  Free  Church  might  originate  or  confirm.  He 
was  not  prepared  at  the  instant  to  cast  his  old  convictions 
away,  but  he  was  ready  to  admit  whatever  light  this  new 
experience  might  supply.  At  the  Bicentenary  Meeting  held 
at  Edinburgh  in  July,  1843,  he  said,  "  I  confess  a  keener 
scientific  interest  in  this  question  than  ever,  now  that  Volun- 
taryism, brought  to  the  test  of  experience,  is  fully  put  upon 
its  trial ;  I  for  one  will  make  it  my  strenuous  endeavor  to 
do  it  all  justice,  by  drawing  on  its  resources  and  capabilities 
to  the  uttermost.  The  most  direct  way  surely  of  giving  it  a 
trial  is  just  to  try  how  much  it  will  yield  after  that  a  full 
and  fair  appliance  has  been  brought  to  bear  upon  it.  It  is 
but  justice  to  add,  that  we  are  now  in  the  very  thick  of  the 
experiment.      We  call  upon  Voluntaryism  to  open  all  its 


478  MExMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1847. 

fountain-beads,  even  though  it  should  land  us  in  the  predica- 
ment of  the  well-digger,  who  succeeded  so  amply  in  his  at- 
tempts to  obtain  water,  that  he  made  a  narrow  escape  from 
drowning  in  the  abundance  of  those  rushing  streams  which 
he  himself  had  evoked  from  their  liiding-places.  Now, 
though  my  own  theory  should  incur  by  it  the  semblance, 
nay,  even  if  so  be,  the  reality  of  a  defeat  or  confutation,  I 
for  one  should  most  heartily  rejoice  if  Voluntaryism,  playing 
upon  us  in  every  direction,  shall  make  such  demonstrations 
of  its  exuberance  and  its  power  as  well-nigh  to  submerge 
myself  and  utterly  to  overwhelm  my  argument." 

Dr.  Chalmers  only  lived  to  see  this  trial  of  Voluntaryism 
to  the  close  of  its  fourth  year.  And  looking  at  the  aspect 
which  the  Free  Church  presented  in  May  1847,  the  Vol- 
untaries might  confidently  enough  have  asserted  that  the 
verdict  of  experience  was  in  their  favor  ;  for  here  was  a 
Christian  community  not  of  the  wealthiest  classes,  upon 
which  470  clergymen  had  suddenly  been  thrown,  and  which 
had  not  only  accepted  and  fulfilled  the  obligation  to  sustain 
them,  but  in  four  years  had  added  250  more  to  the  regular 
ministry  which  it  upheld.  At  a  cost  of  upward  of  X450,000, 
it  had  erected  churches  for  all  its  congregations,  and  in  ad- 
dition to  this  had  subscribed  £100,000  to  build  manses  for 
all  iis  ministers.  It  had  instituted  a  College  with  nine 
Professorships,  to  each  of  which  a  salary  of  from  £300  to 
£400  per  annum  was  attached.  It  had  340  students 
under  education  for  the  holy  office,  among  whom  bursaries 
and  scholarships  to  the  amount  of  £700  had  been  distributed 
in  a  single  year.  By  a  single  effort  it  had  raised  £50,000 
for  the  building  of  500  school-houses,  and  it  had  already 
connected  with  it  about  600  schools,  in  which  nearly  as 
many  children  were  instructed  in  the  ordinary  branches  of 
education  as  were  in  attendance  at  all  the  endowed  parochial 
schools  of  Scotland.  For  the  teaching  and  training  of  school- 
masters it  had  two  extensive  normal  estabUshments  in  Glas- 
gow and  Edinburgh.      At  home   110   licentiates  and   116 


JET.  67.  VERDICT  UPON  VOLUNTARYISM.  479 

calechists  were  engaged  in  the  spiritual  instruction  of"  the 
people,  while  abroad  it  had  agents  laboring  in  every  quarter 
of  the  habitable  globe.  At  Pesth,  at  Jassy,  at  Berlin,  at 
Constantinople,  seventeen  missionaries  and  assistants  were 
endeavoring  to  promote  the  conversion  of  the  Jews.  At 
Calcutta,  Madras,  Bombay,  Puna,  and  Nagpur,  it  supported 
fifteen  European  clergymen  ordained  as  missionaries,  nine 
converted  natives  engaged  in  the  work  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  and  a  large  band  of  teachers  and  assistants,  both 
native  and  European,  from  whom  4000  Indian  children 
were  receiving  a  complete  Christian  education.  In  Nova 
Scotia,  the  Canada.s,  the  West  Indies,  the  Cape,  Australia, 
Madeira,  Malta,  Leghorn,  and  Gibraltar,  there  were  minis- 
ters supported  in  whole  or  in  part  by  the  bounty  of  the  Free 
Church,  while  £1000  per  annum  had  been  intrusted  to  the 
Evangelical  Societies  of  France  and  of  Geneva,  to  aid  in 
circulating  the  Gospel  over  the  continent  of  Europe.  In 
1847,  the  Free  Church  raised  fur  educational  and  missionary 
objects  three  times  as  much  as  the  united  Church  of  Scot- 
land did  in  1843.  It  had  continued  for  four  years  to  yield 
the  princely  revenue  of  £300,000,  and  in  that  short  period 
had  contributed  about  a  million  and  a  half  to  the  Christian 
cause.*  The  annals  of  Voluntaryism  present  no  instance  of 
like  success  :  yet  bringing  it  to  the  test  which  he  constantly 
employed,  and  which  he  believed  to  be  the  only  true  and 
legitimate  one,  Dr.  Chalmers's  final  verdict  was  unfavorable. 
"I  can  afford,"  said  he,  "to  say  no  more  than  that  my 
hopes  of  an  extended  Christianity  from  the  efforts  of  Volun- 
taryism alone  have  not  been  brightened  by  my  experience 
since  the  Disruption.  This  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
seek    an   alliance   with   the  State  by  a   compromise  of  the 

*  Assuming  the  number  of  families  in  her  connection  to  be  400,000, 
and  their  average  income  to  £50  per  annum,  the  revenue  of  the  Free 
Church,  at  the  time  of  her  greatest  pecuniary  efforts,  did  not  exceed 
three  per  cent  upon  the  income  of  her  members.  Applied  elsewhere, 
this  method  of  calculation  indicates  how  small  a  portion  of  its  wealth 
the  Christian  world  dedicates  to  the  cause  of  Christianity. 


480  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1847. 

Church's  spiritual  independence  ;  and  still  less  with  a  Gov- 
ernment which,  on  the  question  of  endownents,  disclaims  all 
cognizance  of  the  merits  of  that  rehgion  on  which  it  confers 
support,  and  makes  no  distinction  between  the  true  and  the 
false,  between  the  scriptural  and  the  unscriptural.  Still,  it 
may  be  a  heavy  misfortune — it  may  prove  a  great  moral 
calamity — when  a  Government  does  fall  into  what,  speaking 
in  the  terms  of  my  own  opinion,  I  hold  to  be  the  dereliction 
of  a  great  and  incumbent  duty.  And  ere  I  am  satisfied 
that  Voluntaryism  will  repair  the  mischief,  I  must  first  see 
the  evidences  of  its  success  in  making  head  against  the 
fearfully  increased  heathenism,  and  increasing  still,  that  ac- 
cumulates at  so  fast  a  rate  throughout  the  great  bulk  and 
body  of  the  common  people.  We  had  better  not  say  too 
much  on  the  pretensions  or  the  powers  of  Voluntaryism,  till 
we  have  made  some  progress  in  reclaiming  the  wastes  of 
ignorance  and  irreligion  and  profligacy  which  so  overspread 
our  land  ;  or  till  we  see  whether  the  congregational  selfish- 
ness which  so  predominates  every  where,  can  be  prevailed 
on  to  make  larger  sacrifices  for  the  Christian  good  of  our 
general  population.  Should  their  degeneracy  increase  to  the 
demolition,  at  length,  of  the  present  frame-work  of  society, 
and  this  in  spite  of  all  that  the  most  zealous  Voluntaryism 
can  do  to  withstand  it,  it  will  form  a  most  striking  experi- 
mental demonstration  of  the  vast  importance  of  Christian 
Governments  for  the  Christian  good  of  the  world.  The 
lights  of  experience  and  prophecy  will  be  found  to  harmonize, 
when,  after  what  may  he  called  the  horrors  of  the  middle 
passage,  the  desolating  flood  of  anarchy  and  misrule  that  is 
coming  on  the  earth — millennium  will  at  length  emerge  from 
it ;  but  then,  in  conjunction  therewith,  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  shall  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  Governments  of  the 
world  shall  all  be  Christianized. 

"  It  seems  very  clear  that  internal  Voluntaryism  will  not, 
of  itself,  do  all,  and,  with  all  the  vaunted  prosperity  of  the 


MT.  67.  THE  EDUCATION  QUESTION.  481 

Free  Church,  we  do  not  find  that  external  Voluntaryism  will 
either  make  up  the  deficiencies  of  the  former,  or,  still  less,  of 
itself,  do  all  either.  *  *  *  We  rejoice,  therefore,  in  the 
testimony  of  the  Free  Church  for  the  principle  of  a  National 
Establishment,  and  most  sincerely  do  we  hope  that  she  will 
never  fall  away  from  it.  Little  do  those  of  her  enemies, 
who,  at  the  same  time,  are  the  friends  of  loyalty  and  order 
— (for,  besides  these,  we  can  rank  many  of  the  turbulent  and 
disaffected  in  society  as  among  the  deadliest  of  her  enemies) 
— little  do  they  know  that  the  Free  Church  is  at  this  mo- 
ment lifting  a  far  more  influential  testimony  on  the  side  of 
ecclesiastical  endowments  that  can  possibly  be  given  in  any 
other  quarter  of  society.  Hers  is  a  wholly  disinterested 
testimony  in  their  favor,  for  she  reaps  no  advantage  from 
them  ;  but,  sorely  aggrieved  though  she  has  been  by  our 
rulers,  she  will  neither  underrate  the  importance  of  their 
friendship,  nor  yet  the  solemn  obligation  which  lies  upon 
them  to  care  for  the  rehgion  of  the  people,  and  to  provide 
within  their  sphere  for  this  best  and  highest  interest  of  the 
commonwealth."* 

In  the  spring  of  1847,  the  Free  Church  was  agitated  by 
a  discussion  relative  to  the  Government  scheme  of  education. 
By  their  Minutes  of  August  and  December,  1846,  the  Com- 
mittee of  Council  on  Education  offered  grants  to  all  schools 
indiscriminately  which  should  submit  to  the  conditions — that 
they  should  be  visited  regularly  by  a  Government  Inspector ; 
that  the  Holy  Scriptures  should  be  daily  read  ;  and  that 
such  religious  instruction  as  the  managers  approved  of 
should  be  communicated.  A  difference  of  opinion  arose  as 
to  whether  the  Free  Church  should  permit  any  of  the  schools 
in  connection  with  her  own  Education  Scheme  to  accept  of 
grants  tendered  upon  such  terms,  and  considerable  difficulty 
was  experienced  as  to  the  judgment  which  the  Church 
should  express  upon  the  general  character  of  the  Govern- 
ment measure.     Viewing  the  question  as  an  ecclesiastic,  and 

*  "Earnest  Appeal,"  pp.  52,  53. 
VOL     IV. — X 


432  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1847. 

for  the  purpose  mainly  of  deciding  what  part  the  Free 
Church  should  take,  and  what  attitude  she  should  assume, 
Dr.  Chalmers  transmitted  the  following  expression  of  his 
opinion  to  Dr.  Cunningham  : 

MORNINGSIDE,  EDINBURGH,  3d  April,  1847. 

"  My  dear  Sir — I  promised  to  write  you  on  the  Educa- 
tion question,  for  I  am  quite  willing  on  every  occasion  to 
state  my  opinions,  though  I  may  no  longer  fight  for  them, 
and  must,  therefore,  be  excused  from  being  present  at  the 
Presbytery.  But  really  I  am  at  loss  what  to  say.  I  wait 
for  more  data  than  we  are  yet  in  possession  of.  I  would 
infinitely  rather  that,  in  hoc  statu,  the  Presbytery  would  not 
take  up  the  question  at  all.  I  deprecate  every  precipitate 
and  premature  committal  of  ourselves,  and  would  prize  it  as 
a  signal  honor  for  the  Free  Church,  if,  when  it  did  come 
forward,  it  was  with  a  well-weighed  and  unexceptional 
deliverance  upon  this  great  question. 

•'  1.  I  feel  no  hesitation  as  to  the  wrongness  of  an  indis- 
criminate endowment,  if  it  carry  in  it  the  expression  of  an 
equal  countenance  by  the  Legislature  to  all  forms  of  religion. 
I  believe  that  there  are  modifications  upon  their  scheme  by 
which  this  might  be  done  away,  so  as  to  give  no  other 
character  to  the  movement  on  the  part  of  the  State,  than  a 
desire  for  the  elevation  of  the  people  in  general  intelligence 
and  scholarship — an  object  which  we  should  no  more  resist 
than  the  object  of  public  health,  or  economic  improvement, 
or  any  other  amelioration  that  can  be  devised  for  the  tem- 
poral well-being  of  the  masses  in  our  land. 

"  2.  Again,  I  would  not  object  to  a  most  strenuous  rec- 
ommendation of  every  exertion  being  made  in  each  of  our 
Free  Church  localities  for  the  support  of  our  own  schools. 
None  would  more  sincerely  rejoice  than  I  should,  if,  by  the 
liberal  contributions  given  to  our  educational  scheme,  the 
popular  endowment  were  to  supersede  the  necessity  for  a  State 
endowment  altogether.      To  avoid  the  hazard,  or  t^ven  iue 


.^T.  67.      GOVERNMENT  SCHEME  OF  EDUCATION.  483 

semblance  of  any  mischief,  and  I  am  hopeful  that  it  is  but  a 
semblance,  yet,  to  avoid  even  this,  I  should  look  upon  it  as 
a  higher  position,  if  we  could  draw  all  our  means  for  a  sound 
education  to  our  families  from  the  liberality  of  our  Christian 
friends,  rather  than  from  the  public  treasury. 

"  I  am  inclined  to  hold  that  the  Free  Church  fully 
acquits  herself  of  all  that  she  owes  on  the  score  of  principle 
by  her  honest  and  fearless  testimony  under  the  first  head, 
and  her  earnest  recommendations  under  the  second.  Should 
the  recommendation,  however,  not  take  full  effect,  and  should 
Government  at  the  same  time  abstain  from  all  control  over 
our  methods,  and  although  they  inspected  as  much  as  they  had 
a  mind  to,  I  would  be  far  from  laying  an  authoritative  in- 
terdict on  the  managers  in  any  of  our  localities  against  their 
availing  themselves  of  Government  aid.  I  would  therefore 
leave  the  determination  of  this  question  in  each  particular 
case  to  the  consciences  of  those  who  have  to  do  with  it. 

"  And  let  it  ever  be  recollected  that  if  we  should  come  to 
any  deliverance  at  all,  it  must  be  a  very  peculiar  one,  and 
very  different  from  that  of  our  dissenting  Voluntaries'.  It  is 
my  earnest  prayer  that  the  Free  Church  may  be  rightly 
guided  in  this  matter — Ever  believe  me,  my  dear  Sir,  yours 
very  truly,  Thomas  Chalmers. 

"  Rev.  Dr.  Cannineuam.'' 

During  the  last  few  months  of  his  life  the  subject  of 
national  education  was  much  upon  Dr.  Chalmers's  mind. 
Convinced  that  the  Free  Church,  was  as  unlikely  by  its  vol- 
untary efibrts  to  supply  the  educational,  as  it  was  to  supply 
the  spiritual  wants  of  the  country,  that  what  would  have 
been  the  best  system  for  the  Government  to  adopt  was  no 
longer  practicable,  and  anxious  that  public  aid  in  some  large 
and  effective  way  should  be  extended,  he  had  pondered  the 
problem  as  to  the  course  which,  under  existing  circumstances, 
the  Government  should  pursue.  His  views,  the  fruit  of 
much   previous   consideration,   were  stated   by  him  in  con- 


484  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1847 

versation  to  Mr.  Fox  Maiile,  and  other  members  of  Her 
Majesty's  Government,  whom  he  met  in  London  in  May. 
Mr.  Maule  having  requested  that  he  would  embody  them  in 
writing,  he  took  advantage  of"  a  day's  leisure  while  living 
with  his  sister,  Mrs.  Morton,  in  Gloucestershire,  on  his  way 
home,  to  comply  with  this  request.  The  following  paper 
prepared  under  these  circumstances,  and  with  this  object,  was 
written  about  a  week  before  his  death,  and  comes  to  us  sealed 
with  the  impressive  characteristic  of  being  the  last  formal 
expression  of  his  judgment  on  any  great  public  question. 

"  It  were  the  best  state  of  things  that  we  had  a  Parlia- 
ment sufficiently  theological  to  discriminate  between  the  right 
and  the  wrong  in  religion,  and  to  encourage  or  endow  ac- 
cordingly. But  failing  this,  it  seems  to  us  the  next  best 
thing,  that  in  any  public  measure  for  helping  on  the  educa- 
tion of  the  people.  Government  were  to  abstain  from  intro- 
ducing the  element  of  religion  at  all  into  their  part  of  the 
scheme,  and  this  not  because  they  held  the  matter  to  be 
insignificant — the  contrary  might  be  strongly  expressed  in 
the  preamble  of  their  act;  but  on  the  ground  that,  in  the 
present  divided  state  of  the  Christian  world,  they  would  take 
no  cognizance  of,  just  because  they  would  attempt  no  control 
over,  the  religion  of  applicants  for  aid — leaving  this  matter 
entire  to  the  parties  who  had  to  do  with  the  erection  and 
management  of  the  schools  which  they  had  been  called  upon 
to  assist.  A  grant  by  the  State  upon  this  footing  might  be 
regarded  as  being  appropriately  and  exclusively  the  expres- 
sion of  their  value  for  a  good  secular  education. 

"  The  confinement  for  the  time  being  of  any  Government 
measure  for  schools  to  this  object  we  hold  to  be  an  imputa- 
tion, not  so  much  on  the  present  state  of  our  Legislature,  as 
on  the  present  state  of  the  Christian  world,  now  broken  up 
into  sects  and  parties  innumerable,  and  seemingly  incapable 
of  any  effort  for  so  healing  these  wretched  divisions  as  to 
present  the  rulers  of  our  country  with  aught  like  such  a  clear 


JET.  67.      GOVERNMENT  SCHEME  OF  EDUCATION.  485 

and  unequivocal  majority  in  favor  of  vi^hat  is  good  and  true, 
as  might  at  once  determine  them  to  fix  upon  and  to  espouse  it. 

"  It  is  this  vv'hich  has  encompassed  the  Government  Vi^ith 
difficulties,  from  which  we  can  see  no  other  method  of  ex- 
trication than  the  one  which  we  have  ventured  to  suggest. 
And  as  there  seems  no  reason  why,  because  of  these  unre- 
solved differences,  a  public  measure  for  the  health  of  all — 
for  the  recreation  of  all — for  the  economic  advancement  of 
all — should  be  held  in  abeyance,  there  seems  as  little  reason 
why,  because  of  these  differences,  a  public  measure  for  rais- 
ing the  general  intelligence  of  all  should  be  held  in  abeyance. 
Let  the  men,  therefore,  of  all  churches  and  all  denominations 
alike  hail  such  a  measure,  whether  as  carried  into  effect  by 
a  good  education  in  letters  or  in  any  of  the  sciences  ;  and, 
meanwhile,  in  these  very  seminaries,  let  that  education  in 
religion  which  the  Legislature  abstains  from  providing  for 
be  provided  for  as  freely  and  amply  as  they  will  by  those  who 
have  undertaken  the  charge  of  them. 

"  We  should  hope,  as  the  result  of  such  a  scheme,  for  a 
most  wholesome  rivalship  on  the  part  of  many  in  the  great 
aim  of  rearing  on  the  basis  of  their  respective  systems  a  moral 
and  Christian  population,  well  taught  in  the  principles  and 
doctrines  of  the  gospel,  along  with  being  well  taught  in  the 
lessons  of  ordinary  scholarship.  Although  no  attempt  should 
be  made  to  regulate  or  to  enforce  the  lessons  of  religion  in 
the  inner  hall  of  legislation,  this  will  not  prevent,  but  rather 
stimulate  to  a  greater  earnestness  in  the  contest  between 
truth  and  falsehood — between  light  and  darkness — in  the 
outer  field  of  society  ;  nor  will  the  result  of  such  a  contest 
in  favor  of  what  is  right  and  good  be  at  all  the  more  un- 
likely, that  the  families  of  the  land  have  been  raised  by  the 
helping  hand  of  the  State  to  a  higher  platform  than  before, 
whether  as  respects  their  health,  or  their  physical  comfort, 
or  their  economic  condition,  or,  last  of  all,  their  place  in  the 
scale  of  intelligence  and  learning. 

"  Religion  would  under  such  a  system,  be  the  immediate 


486  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMHKS.  1847, 

product,  not  of  legislation,  but  of  the  Christian  and  philan- 
thropic zeal  which  obtained  throughout  society  at  large. 
But  it  is  well  when  what  legislation  does  for  the  fulfillment 
of  its  object  tends  not  to  the  impediment,  but  rather  we  ap- 
prehend, to  the  furtherance  of  those  greater  and  higher  objects 
which  are  in  the  contemplation  of  those  whose  desires  are 
chiefly  set  on  the  immortal  wellbeing  of  man. 

"  On  the  basis  of  these  general  views  I  have  two  remarks 
to  offer  regarding  the  Government  Scheme  of  Education. 

"  1.  I  should  not  require  a  certificate  of  satisfaction  with 
the  religious  progress  of  the  scholars  from  the  managers  of 
the  schools,  in  order  to  their  receiving  the  Government  aid. 
Such  a  certificate  from  Unitarians  or  Catholics  implies  the 
direct  sanction  or  countenance  by  Government  to  their  re- 
spective creeds,  and  the  responsibility,  not  of  aUowing,  but 
more  than  this,  of  requiri??g,  that  tliese  shall  be  taught  to 
the  children  who  attend.  A  bare  allowance  is  but  a  gen- 
eral toleration ;  but  a  requirement  involves  in  it  all  the  mis- 
chief, and,  I  would  add,  the  guilt,  of  an  indiscriminate  en- 
dowment for  truth  and  error. 

"  2.  I  would  suffer  parents  or  natural  guardians  to  select 
what  parts  of  the  education  they  wanted  for  their  children. 
I  would  not  force  arithmetic  upon  them,  if  all  they  wanted 
was  writing  and  reading ;  and  as  little  would  I  force  the 
Catechism,  or  any  part  of  the  religious  instruction  that  was 
given  in  the  school,  if  all  they  wanted  was  a  secular  educa- 
tion. That  the  managers  in  the  Church  of  England  schools 
shall  have  the  power  to  impose  their  Catechism  upon  the 
children  of  Dissenters,  and  still  more  to  compel  their  at- 
tendance on  church,  I  regard  as  among  the  worst  parts  of 
the  scheme. 

"  The  above  observations,  it  will  be  seen,  meet  any  ques- 
tions which  might  be  put  in  regard  to  the  applicability  of 
the  scheme  to  Scotland,  or  in  regard  to  the  use  of  the  Douay 
version  in  Roman  Catholic  schools. 

"  I  can  not  conclude  without  expressing  my  despair  of  any 


MT.  67.  REFUSAL  OF  SITES.  487 

great  or  general  good  being  effected  in  the  way  of  Christian- 
izing our  population,  but  through  the  medium  of  a  Govern- 
ment themselves  Christian,  and  endowing  the  true  religion, 
which  I  hold  to  be  their  imperative  duty,  not  because  it  is 
the  religion  of  the  many,  but  because  it  is  true, 

"  The  scheme  on  which  I  have  now  ventured  to  offer 
these  few  observations,  I  should  like  to  be  adopted,  not  be- 
cause it  is  absolutely  the  best,  but  only  the  best  in  existing 
circumstances. 

"  The  endowment  of  the  Catholic  religion  by  the  State  I 
sliould  deprecate,  as  being  ruinous  to  the  country  in  all  its 
interests.  Still,  I  do  not  look  for  the  general  Christianity 
of  the  people  but  through  the  medium  of  the  Christianity  of 
their  rulers.  This  is  a  lesson  taught  historically  in  Scrip- 
ture by  what  we  read  there  of  the  influence  which  the  per- 
sonal character  of  the  Jewish  monarchs  had  on  the  moral 
and  religious  state  of  their  subjects — it  is  taught  experiment- 
ally by  the  impotence,  now  fully  established,  of  the  Volun- 
tary principle — and  last,  and  most  decisive  of  all,  it  is  taught 
prophetically  in  the  Book  of  Revelation,  when  told  that  then 
will  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  {paGiXeiai,  or  governing 
powers)  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  or 
the  governments  of  the  earth  become  Christian  governments. 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

There  M'as  one  other  expression  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  opinion 
delivered  so  publicly  and  so  close  upon  his  death,  that  a  pe- 
cuhar  weight  attaches  to  it.  At  the  Disruption  a  large  body 
of  the  landed  aristocracy  of  Scotland  had  refused  upon  any 
terms  to  grant  sites  on  which  churches  or  manses  might  be 
built.  Such  stable  fabrics  would  give  permanence  to  a  move- 
ment which  they  intensely  disliked,  and  might  prevent  that 
reunion  with  the  Establishment  which,  when  the  flush  of 
the  first  excitement  was  over,  they  hoped  to  see  accomplish- 
ed. When  these  anticipations  were  falsified,  and  it  became 
evident  that  the  Free  Church  was  to  rank  among  the  per- 


483  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1847. 

nianent  institutions  of  the  country,  many  of  these  hostile 
proprietors  gave  way,  but  a  goodly  number  still  stood  out. 
Having  waited  patiently,  but  in  vain,  for  two  years,  in  the 
hope  that  this  spirit  of  intolerance  would  spontaneously  sub- 
side, and  having  exhausted  all  means  of  private  influence 
and  remonstrance,  the  General  Assembly  of  1845  petitioned 
Parliament  and  the  Legislature,  stating  the  (grievance,  and 
praying  for  legislative  redress.  The  Government  having 
shown  no  disposition  to  move  in  the  matter,  Mr.  Maule,  in 
June,  1846,  introduced  a  bill  into  the  House  of  Commons, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  oblige  the  proprietors  to  concede. 
The  leading  members  of  the  House  concurred  in  condemning 
the  conduct  complained  of,  but  as  its  conclusion  was  thought 
to  be  too  stringent,  and  the  hope  was  cherished  that  their 
own  good  sense  and  good  feeling  would  induce  the  proprietors 
to  yield  without  the  necessity  of  legislative  interference,  the 
Bill  was  thrown  out.  No  symptoms  of  concession  appear- 
ing, Mr.  Bouverie,  in  March,  1847,  moved  and  carried  the 
appointment  of  a  Committee  of  the  House  "  to  inquire  whether, 
and  in  what  parts  of  Scotland,  and  under  what  circumstances, 
large  numbers  of  her  Majesty's  subjects  have  been  deprived 
of  the  means  of  religious  worship  by  the  refusal  of  certain 
proprietors  to  grant  them  sites  for  the  erection  of  churches." 
It  soon  became  evident  that  the  examination  of  witnesses  be- 
fore the  Committee  was  to  take  a  wide  and  important  range, 
and  that  an  attempt  was  to  be  made  by  representing  the 
grounds  of  the  Disruption  as  so  untenable,  and  the  opposition 
offered  to  the  Establishment  so  violent,  as  to  palliate  if  not 
excuse  even  the  strong  step  of  refusing  sites  for  churches.  In 
these  circumstances,  it  was  deemed  desirable  that  Dr.  Chal- 
mers should  appear  as  a  witness  before  the  Committee.  He 
had  lately  retired  very  much  from  public  life,  and  was  in  a 
situation  to  take  a  wider  and  calmer  survey  of  the  principles 
and  position  of  the  Free  Church,  than  was  possible  at  the 
period  of  the  Disruption,  or  easy  even  now  for  those  still  mixed 
up  with  her  affairs.      His  withdrawal  from  the  public  busi- 


iET.  67.  JOURNAL.  489 

ness  of  the  Church  had  even  created  in  some  quarters  the 
impression,  that  disappointed  in  his  first  expectations,  the 
strength  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  attachment  to  the  Free  Church 
had  been  of  late  somewhat  shaken,  so  that  no  small  amount 
of  curiosity  was  awakened  as  to  what  kind  of  evidence  he 
would  give.  On  Sabbath,  the  2d  of  May,  he  assisted  at 
the  Communion  in  the  Free  Chutch  of  Ratho,  and  preached 
the  evening  sermon,  his  last  in  Scotland.  On  the  Thursday 
following,  accompanied  by  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Mackenzie,  he 
set  out  for  London,  where  he  arrived  on  the  evening  of  Friday, 
the  7th,  when  he  found  that  his  examination  was  not  to  take 
place  till  the  following  Wednesday.  On  the  intervening 
Sabbath  he  officiated  in  Mary-le-bone  Presbyterian  Church. 
From  his  own  journal-letters  we  ofier  the  following  extracts  : 

"  Sunday,  May  9th. — Preached  with  greater  comfort 
than  I  had  ever  done  before  in  London.  The  church  was 
thin  when  we  first  entered  it,  but  became  full,  with  a  good 
many  in  the  passages,  before  I  began.  Preached  less  than 
an  hour  ;  made  an  early  retreat  from  the  vestry  to  Mr.  Car- 
michael's  house  close  by.  Was  afterward  told  that  Lord 
John  Pi-usselL  Lady  Carlisle,  Lord  Morpeth's  mother,  and 
Lord  Morpeth  himself,  had  come  to  the  vestry  to  shake 
hands  with  me,  but  I  had  gone.  ^  *  *  Delighted  with  a 
call  after  dinner  from  Dr.  Bunting,  with  whom  I  and  Mr. 
Mackenzie  were  left  alone  for  an  hour  at  least.  Most  ex- 
quisite interview  with  one  of  the  best  and  wisest  of  men. 
Mr.  M.  and  I  both  love  him  to  the  uttermost. 

"  Mo7iday,  1  0th. — Went  a  second  time  to  the  Athenaeum. 
On  my  way  met  a  gentleman  coming  out  of  it,  who  looked 
hard  at  me,  and  continued  looking  after  we  passed  ;  and  when 
I  parted  from  Mr.  Hamilton  came  back  to  me.  It  was 
Dr.  Whewell,  Master  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  As 
we  stood  and  talked  at  the  door,  there  came  to  it  two  mem- 
bers, to  whom  he  introduced  me — the  Bishop  of  Gloucester, 
mid    Mr.  Lj'ell  the  geologist.      Dr.  Whewell  and   I  sat  to- 


490  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1S47. 


gether  at  our  little  table  in  the  AtheriEeum,  where  we  talked 
and  took  our  respective  soda  waters.  The  treasurer  and  secre- 
larj^  are  both  most  attentive  to  rne,  and  I  have  a  good  mind 
to  propose  the  JS^orth  British  Review  for  being  taken  in, 
which  I  fear  it  is  not  yet :  at  Jeast  I  have  not  met  it,  though 
I  have  gone  through  a  great  number  of  their  papers  and 
periodicals.  Went  back  tO  my  lodgings,  where  I  siesta'd — 
thence  at  five  to  the  National  Gallery,  where  we  S])ent  half 
an  hour  among  the  pictures  of  the  great  masters:  Wilkie  is 
conepicDous  by  a  statue  of  him  at  the  entrance  and  a  large 
portrait  np  stairs.*  The  pictures  are  ia-w  and  select,  but 
of  first-rate  value,  and  I  should  like  to  revisit  them  ; — the 
i-^Gallery  is  but  a  step  from  our  lodgings.  Thence  took  a  cab 
'  (or  Mr.  Maule's,  where  we  dined  :  a  small  eightsome  party, 
reminding  rne  of  Lord  Lansdowne's  select  parties  round  a 
small  circular  table.  Besides  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Maule,  Miss 
Abercrombie,  a  nephew,  and  ourselves,  there  were  but  two 
more — Mr.  Ptutherfurd,  Lord  Advocate,  and  last,  though  not 
least.  Lord  Morpeth.  We  had  a  deal  of  easy  familiar  talk 
about  the  Government  Scheme  of  Education,  Health  of 
Towns  (Lord  Morpeth's  department).  Territorial  System, 
&C-,  &c-  After  coffee  I  had  a  sofa  talk  with  Lord  Morpeth 
on  the  subject  of  West  Port  improvements,  nuisances,  public 
health,  Sec,  <fc^.  I  like  him  very  much — intelligent,  philan- 
thropic, with  all  the  grace  and  culture  of  high  Aristocracy 
without  its  hauteur  :  he  took  a  most  friendly  adieu  of  me 
when  he  and  the  other  Parliamenters  went  off  to  attend  the 
House  of  Commons  :  we  sat  half  an  hour  after  them  with 
the  ladies.  Ordered  a  cab  a  little  after  nine  :  off  to  War- 
wick Street,  and  flung  myself  into  bed  at  ten. 

"  Tuesday,  1  \th. — Crossed  at  Westminster  Bridge  where 

*  WOkie  told  Dr.  Chalmers  that  be  once  met  in  the  Strand  a  group, 
ccmsUtiog  c^a  man  and  two  children,  and  that  his  eye  was  arrested  by 
an  object  which  convinced  bira  that  they  were  the  whole  family — it  was 
the  great  door-key  which  one  of  them  was  carr}-ing.  Dr.  Chalmers 
observed  that  Wilkie  had  availed  himself  of  this  circumstance  in  his  pic- 
ture of  the  Rent  Day — substitatiog,  however,  a  widow  for  a  widower. 


^T.  67.    EXAMINATION  BEFORF:  THH  COMMITTEE.  -191 

I  saw  for  the  first  time  the  magnificent  Houses  of  Parliament, 
and  was  powerfully  impressed  by  them.  Landed  at  Mrs. 
Chalmers's*  before  three — a  feeling  and  affectionate  recep- 
tion. I  proposed  to  pray  with  her,  to  which  she  readily  as- 
sented ;  she  was  much  affected  ;  altogether  it  was  a  serious 
interview,  and  my  brother's  faithful  and  vivid  picture  has 
haunted  me  ever  since.  *  *  *  After  my  siesta  went  off  to 
the  Athenaeum,  where  I  had  my  reviews  and  newspapers. 
I  am  now  in  the  library  with  other  quiet,  philosophic  looking 
sava?2S  at  our  respective  tables,  and  am  writing  you  on 
Athenseum  paper  with  Athenaeum  ink,  and  by  an  Athenaeum 
metallic  pen.  In  the  large  room  where  I  had  my  solitary 
tea,  there  w^ere  twenty  or  thirty  at  their  separate  dinners. 
*  *  #  The  impression  of  my  brother's  picture  still  adheres 
to  me  ;  it  is  an.  affecting  memento,  and  may  well  loosen  our 
attachments  to  time.      May  we  be  wise  for  eternity  I" 

"  Wednesday,  \2th. — Here  I  am,  in  anxious  expectancy. 
^  *  *  At  length  the  call  came,  and  I  took  leave  of  my  gos- 
sips in  the  lobby,  for  my  inquisitors  in  the  Committee-room. 
Sir  James  was  there,  and  when  I  entered  rose  from  his  seat, 
came  down  to  the  floor,  and  shook  hands  with  me,  with  smiles 
and  blandness  of  expression,  that  made  him  as  unlike  a  wor 
ricow  as  possible^  Mr.  Bouverie  was  in  the  chair  ;  but  Mr. 
Maule  conducted  the  examination,  which  he  did  ably  and 
satisfactorily.  Sir  James  rose  in  the  middle  of  it  and  went 
out,  and  I  thought  he  was  really  to  keep  his  promise.  But 
he  did  not,  for  he  returned  and  had  a  number  of  documents 
along  with  him — my  printed  speeches,  concluding  Modera- 
tor's Address  to  the  Free  Church  Assembly,  the  very  Mon- 
trose paper  where  was  my  letter  anent  Gladstone,  &:c.,  &:c. 
Thus  armed,  he  fell  upon  me  for  an  hour  or  bo,  to  the  great 
surprise  of  Mr.  Maule,  who  told  me  afterward  that  he  had 
said  in  public  he  should  not  put  one  question — he  could  not, 
in  the  face  of  old  friendly  recollections,  &c.,  &:c.  My  only 
regret  is,  thfit  his  questioning  process  of  an  hour,  was  thu 
♦  The  widow-  of  bis  brother  James. 


492  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1847. 

last  hour,  when,  a  good  deal  exhausted,  I  was  scarcely  able 
either  mentally  to  frame,  or  orally  to  articulate  a  reply. 
However,  I  kept  my  ground  ;  and  I  saw  many  a  friendly 
smile  elicited  by  my  replies.  There  was  an  awkwardness  that 
occurred  when  he  asked  me  about  the  women's  voting,  and 
T  said,  I  ever  looked  upon  that  as  a  most  paltry  question,  on 
which  he  reddened,  supposing  that  I  meant  the  question  as 
coming  from  him,  instead  of  the  question  or  topic  in  itself 
However,  he  was  mild  and  gentlemanly  throughout,  and  shed 
many  a  benignant  smile  from  the  tribunal  where  he  sat,  on 
the  panel  at  the  bar.  On  one  occasion  when  he  asked  me 
about  the  wisdom  of  legislating  on  some  one  point  or  other 
— some  very  ambiguous  matter,  and  on  which  he  thought 
to  press  me  hard — I  said  that  I  did  not  feel  it  was  for  me  to 
instruct  legislators  in  their  duties.  There  was  a  general  smile, 
and  he  got  off  by  the  reply,  that  from  me  he  should  ever  be 
happy  to  receive  instruction  upon  all  subjects.  However, 
in  his  hands  the  examination  did  at  length  degenerate  into 
twaddle,  and  the  best  answer  from  me  would  have  been  that 
it  was  twaddle.  But  as  I  could  not  just  say  this,  and  be- 
hooved to  give  him  some  sort  of  answer,  I  was  obliged  '  to 
answer  a  fool  according  to  his  folly,' — so  that  as  you  have 
heard  of  trash  upon  trash;  you  may  perhaps  yet  read  of  twad 
die  upon  twaddle  I  We  kept  our  ground,  however,  and  I 
was  at  perfect  ease  throughout.  His  main  topics  were,  fe- 
male voting,  the  possibility  of  a  re-union  with  the  Establish- 
ment, my  London  Lectures — on  which  he  told  me  that  he 
heard  with  great  satisfaction  my  advocacy  of  the  Erastian 
Church  of  England — my  former  intimacy  with  the  Duke  of 
Buccleuch,  my  views  of  patronage,  spiritual  independence, 
&c.,  &c.*  I  told  him  that  I  did  not  advocate  the  Church  of 
England  ;  that  I  felt  more  hopeful  of  it  then  than  now,  when 
like  to  be  overrun,  by  Puseyism  ;  that  even  then  I  denounced 
its  figment  of  an  Apostolical  succession,  and,  without  directly 

*  For  some  of  the  most  important  parts  of  the  Evidence,  see  Ap. 
j)endix,  K, 


;ET.  67.  SIR  ALEXANDER  CARMICHAEL.  493 

attacking  its  Erastianism,  spoke  of  our  own  independence, 
and  in  terms  which  provoked  the  jealousy  of  English  church- 
men, &:c.,  &;c.  He  also  spoke  of  intercommunion  with  the 
Establishment,  and  tried  to  embarrass  me  on  points  of  previous 
examination  under  Mr.  Maule  ;  and  so  we  concluded  in  a 
state  of  great  exhaustion,  yet  with  an  erect  demeanor  and 
visage  unabashed.  Lord  Morpeth  and  Mr.  Maule  took  me 
to  the  House  of  Lords — the  finest  room  I  ever  saw,  and  by 
which  we  now  outpeer  both  Versailles  and  Fontainebleau, 
There  is  a  profusion  of  gilding,  which  would  have  too  gaudy 
an  effect  w^ere  not  this  counteracted  by  the  rnassiveness  and 
magnificence  of  the  whole.  The  general  effect  both  out  and 
in  disarms  all  criticism  anent  the  details.  Mr.  Carmichael 
was  by  this  time  with  us,  and  he  accompanied  me  to  the 
Treasury,  where  I  called  on  Mr.  Trevelyan  to  thank  him  for 
his  blue  books — a  most  interesting  person,  with  all  the  thought- 
fulness  and  exhaustion  of  an  overworked  student  pictured  in  his 
countenance.  He  told  me  that  he  had  read  my  article  with 
the  deepest  interest,  but  offered  only  one  criticism — that  I 
had  underrated  the  difficulties  of  the  Government.  He  spoke 
with  the  highest  admiration  of  the  Highlanders,  for  that  not 
a  sheep  had  disappeared  from  the  hills,  not  a  baker's  shop 
had  been  broken  into — in  total  contrast  with  Ireland.  I  left 
him  with  much  cordial  regard  :  he  and  Lord  Morpeth  are  the 
most  interesting  people  I  have  met  in  London.  Walked 
thence  through  the  Park  to  the  Athenseum,  at  the  gate  of 
which  I  parted  with  Mr.  Carmichael,  well  prepared  for  my 
dinner  at  five.  Being  a  teetotaller,  I  determined  to  repair 
my  exhaustion  with  good  meat  instead  of  drink  ;  and  so,  on 
inspecting  the  bill  of  fare,  ordered  a  dinner  as  analogous  as 
I  could  make  it  to  kale  and  beef;  so  for  the  kale  I  had  a 
platefiil  of  mock-turtle  soup,  and  calf's-foot  for  the  beef  After 
this,  siesta'd — and  where  ? — still  in  the  Athenaeum,  on  one 
of  the  sofas  of  their  quiet  library,  while  the  silent  readers  to 
the  number  of  four  or  five  were  lounging  upon  their  sofas  or 
avm-chairs  in  other  parts  of  the  capacious  and  liandsome  room 


494  xMBMOIRS  OF   DR.  CHALMERS.  1847. 

Arose  refreshed  between  six  and  seven  ;  expatiated  among 
the  newspapers  ;   got  home  before  nine.  ^^  *'  * 

"  Sir  James  tried  to  heckle  me,  but  1  hope  unsuccessfully, 
on  what  I  had  alleged  as  the  unanimous  view  of  Scotchmen 
in  regard  to  the  distinction  between  civil  and  ecclesiastical  : 
that  and  the  intercommunion  question  I  could  have  man- 
aged better  had  I  been  fresh.  *  *  *  This  much  in  bed — 
it  being  now  eight.  I  must  start  for  Mr.  Carmichael'.s 
where  we  breakfast. — May  the  very  God  of  peace  sanctify 
us  wholly. 

"  Thursday,  loth. — Started  at  eight,  got  into  a  cab  and 
drove  to  Mr.  Carmichael's*  where  Lady  Kinloch,  his  sister, 
was.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Da  vies  there — he  the  son  of  Hart 
Davies,  and  connected  with  the  Hartfords  of  Blaize  Castle, 
where  we  lived ;  also  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  Kinnaird ;  Rev. 
Mr.  Burgess,  now  settled  at  Chelsea  ;  Rev,  Mr.  Russel,  a 
very  fine  man,  who  called  me  out  to  explain  my  proceedings 
at  the  West  Port  to  an  audience  of  by  this  time  about 
twenty,  for  they  came  dropping  in  after  breakfast.  A  cab 
to  Mr.  Morrell's  ;  a  most  interesting  man — a  pallid,  reflect- 
ive countenance,  and  very  conversable  on  his  own  subjects. 
He  accompanied  me  to  Portland  Place,  when  I  took  leave 
of  him  at  the  door  of  Lady  Radstock,  who  received  us  in  the 
kindest  manner  possible.  Lord  Pwadstock  was  engaged  out 
of  doors,  and  we  saw  not  him  ;  but  there  were  two  grown-up 
daughters,  very  frank  and  intelligent,  and  among  all  the 
three  a  fine  enthusiasm  which  we  both  liked  exceedingly. 
Lunched,  and  took  a  most  affectionate  parting  of  each  other. 
Nothing,  indeed,  could  exceed  the  social  pleasure  of  these 
calls.   ^   ^  * 

"  Friday,  lAth. — A  most  splendid  party  breakfast  in  our 
lodgings — Isaac  Taylor,  Mr.  Morrell,  Rev.  James  Hamil- 
ton,   Mr.    Baptist   Noel,    his   son    Wriothesly   Noel,  now   a 

*  The  late  Sir  Alexander  Gibson  Carmichael,  Bart.,  of  Skirliiiff, 
who,  dying  too  soon  for  his  country  and  friends,  {jave  so  many  afTect- 
iog  evidences  on  his  death-bed  of  the  triumphs  of  Christian  faith. 


JET.  67.  MPt.  CARLYLE.  495 


grown-up  lad,  and  George  Weakner.  A  deal  of  talk  :  the 
main  subject  was  Mr.  Irving.  Mr.  Taylor,  whom  I  had 
not  seen  for  ten  years,  looks  a  great  deal  more  than  ten  years 
older.  The  most  interesting  appearance  and  manner  of  a 
man  were  those  of  Mr,  Morrell — modest  and  quiet,  and 
very  intelligent ;  but  Taylor  the  person  of  the  greatest  vigor. 
Mr.  Hamilton's  recent  tracts  are  truly  beautiful,  particularly 
the  '  Vine,'  from  John  xv.  They  left  after  ten,  Taylor  and 
Morell  going  ofi^  together.  *  =5^  *  We  took  a  cab  to  Carlyle's 
at  Chelsea.  Nothing  could  be  warmer  than  Mrs.  Carlyle's 
reception  of  me  (formerly  Miss  Welsh,  who  visited  us  at 
Ardincaple  Inn.)  She  is  remarkably  juvenile  looking  still. 
He  came  to  us  in  a  minute  or  two.  T  had  lost  all  recollec- 
tion of  him,  though  he  told  me  of  three  interviews,  and 
having  breakfasted  with  me  at  Glasgow.  A  strong-featured 
man,  and  of  strong  sense.  We  were  most  cordial  and  co- 
alescing, and  he  very  complimentary  and  pleasant  ;  but  his 
talk  was  not  at  all  Carlylish,  much  rather  the  plain  and 
manly  conversation  of  good  ordinary  common  sense,  with  a  deal 
of  hearty  laughing  on  both  sides.  The  points  on  which  I  was 
most  interested  were  his  approval  of  my  territorial  system, 
and  his  eulogy  on  direct  thinking,  to  the  utter  disparagement 
of  those  subjective  philosophers  who  are  constantly  thinking 
upon  thinking.  We  stopped  more  than  an  hour  with  him. 
^  ^  #  Mr.  Carlyle  professed  his  willingness  to  write  for 
the  '  North  British,'  I  think  Morell  would  do  the  same." 

Attracted  by  his  desire  to  spend  a  day  with  the  Misses 
Fryer,  Dr.  Chalmers  went  down  to  Brighton  on  Saturday 
the  15th  ;  preached  for  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ross  on  Sabbath,  and 
returned  to  town  on  the  following  morning.  -His  last  day 
in  London  was  spent  with  Mrs.  Cardwell,  the  daughter  of 
one*  whom  he  used  often  to  speak  of  as  the  most  perfect 
earthly  pattern  he  had  ever  seen  of  every  feminine  and 
Christian  grace.  Eager  to  get  on  to  Gloucestershire,  yet 
anxious  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Oxford  by  the  way,  he  accom- 
*  Mrs.  Parker  of  Fairlie. 


496  MP:M0IRS  of  dr.  CHALMERS.  1247. 

panied  Dr.  Buckland  on  Tuesday  forenoon  from  London  to 
that  University,  revelled  for  two  or  three  hours  amid  its 
Colleges  and  Halls,  returned  in  time  to  catch  the  train  for 
Bristol,  and  was  welcomed  at  night  by  his  sister  Mrs.  Morton, 
at  Whitfield,  near  Wooten-under-Edge.  Talking  first  of 
what  he  had  last  seen,  he  was  instant  and  profuse  in  his  ex- 
pressions of  regret  at  the  depressed  condition  of  science  and 
general  literature  at  Oxford.  He  had  attended  a  lecture 
on  geology  by  Dr.  Buckland,  and  though  both  subject  and 
lecture  were  so  attractive,  there  were  not  more  than  half  a 
dozen  students  in  attendance. — The  week  which  followed 
was  one  of  pure  and  unmingled  gratification.  Wednesday 
was  devoted  to  a  drive  through  the  Bottoms  of  Gloucester- 
shire, presenting  such  a  succession  of  rich  and  varied  land- 
scapes, that  with  all  their  academic  enthusiasm,  both  Dr, 
Chalmers  and  Mr.  Mackenzie  declared  that  the  glories  of 
Oxford  were  eclipsed.  The  record  of  Saturday  must  be  given 
in  Dr.  Chalmers's  own  words  : 

"  Saturday,  \5th. — Pwode  to  Bristol  on  the  more  elevated 
of  the  two  roads,  and  had  a  glorious  view  on  our  right  of 
the  Vale  of  the  Severn,  and  the  opposite  Monmouthshire 
Landed,  on  our  entry  into  Bristol,  at  Mr.  Norton's,  my 
nephew-in-law.  Like  him  and  his  two  boys,  of  three  years 
and  fourteen  months  respectively.  Mrs.  Norton  most  cordial. 
Set  out  between  eleven  and  twelve.  Called  first  on  Mrs. 
Robert  Hall,  who  received  us  with  great  feeling  and  friend- 
ship. She  has  two  daughters  married,  and  one  unmarried  ; 
but  not  at  home.  Was  greatly  interested  by  the  various 
pictures  and  busts  of  Mr.  Hall  in  the  room  were  we  sat. 
2.  By  the  Vale  of  Clifton,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Grinfield,  whose 
reception  of  us  was  quite  enthusiastic.  The  son  whom  we 
knew  is  a  medical  practitioner  in  Jersey.  His  wife  and 
daughter  and  another  son  were  alike  cordial.  The  lad  of 
1822  is  now  transformed  into  a  sexagenarian,  and  I  should 
certainly  not  have  known  him.  He  could  not  make  enough 
of  me  ;   and  instead  of  leaving  him  at  the  end  of  our  call. 


ET.  67.  THE  BAPTISM  AT  BHTSTOL.  497 


took  him  along  with  us.  He  first  took  me  to  a  Mrs.  Dal- 
rymple  (Scotch  and  Free  Church),  and  we  had  a  genial 
greeting,  then  to  Mr.  Marshall,  whom  I  intended  to  call  on 
at  any  rate.  He  gave  us  a  most  friendly  reception.  In 
conjunction  with  Messrs.  Marshall  and  Grinfield,  we  went 
to  the  cliff,  and  the  whole  party  enjoyed  therefrom  the  view 
of  the  Avon,  and  of  the  country  at  large.  We  then  got  into 
our  fly,  and  took  leave  of  Mr.  Marshall ;  but  Mr.  Grinfield, 
notwithstanding  our  limited  time,  gave  secret  orders  to  drive 
back  by  his  house,  whither  he  himself  walked  quickly,  and 
met  us  with  a  gift  of  Mr.  Foster's  'Lectures,'  just  published 
(second  series),  inscribed  to  me  as  a  memorial  of  my  visit. 
Left  him  with  great  afiection  on  both  sides.  Thence  back 
to  the  Nortons,  where  there  was  tea,  to  which  a  good  many 
had  been  invited  ;  last,  though,  not  least,  Mr.  Ellis,  author 
of  the  '  Polynesian  Researches,'  still  fit  for  society  and  duty, 
though  a  good  deal  debilitated  by  two  paralytic  attacks 
which  he  had  some  years  ago  :  most  interesting  talk  with 
him  on  Otaheite.  It  was  he  who  baptized  and  married 
Queen  Pomare.  His  daughter  lived  some  time  with  the 
Nortons  ;  and  his  present  wife,  the  second,  is  an  esteemed 
authoress,  as  of  '  Prevention  better  than  Cure,'  &c.  I  liked 
the  party  very  much  as  a  whole  ;  and  our  tea  was  followed 
up  by  the  baptism  of  the  younger  children,  which  was  laid 
upon  me  with  the  full  consent  and  approbation  of  Mr. 
Haines,  their  clergyman  ;  it  was  a  very  awkward  affair — 
one  vivacious  boy  of  fourteen  months  was  kicking  and  sprawl- 
ing and  laughing  during  the  whole  of  my  address  ;  and  then 
to  complete  the  thing,  the  bairn  instead  of  being  held  out  to 
me  horizontally  was  held  out  perpendicularly  ;  so  that  I 
could  not  apply  the  water  to  the  face  of  it  but  by  touching 
its  brow  with  my  wet  handful,  and  letting  as  much  I  could 
trickle  down.  The  child  (Alexander  Robert)  thought  I  was 
playing  with  it,  and  got  up  with  a  great  guffaw  of  a  laugh 
as  the  water  flowed  down  its  cheeks.  I  learned  afterward 
that  the  Independent  ministers,  like  the  Episcopalian,  take 


498  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1817. 

the  child  in  the  one  arm  and  baptize  with  the  other — a 
thing  which  I  could  not  have  managed,  and  more  especially 
with  a  boy  so  active  and  athletic  as  he  was.  This  ex- 
plained, however,  the  perpendicularity  of  the  presentation  by 
the  father.  Left  at  half-past  six.  We  made  a  detour  of 
three  miles  to  sec  Foster's  daughters,  now  at  Overn  with 
their  aunt  Mrs.  Cox.  This  Mr.  M.  and  I  regard  as  the 
highest  thing  of  the  day.  There  was  only  one  Miss  Foster 
at  home  ;  but  both  she  and  Mrs.  Cox  were  as  friendly  as 
possible  ;  nothing  could  be  more  gratifying  than  their  recep- 
tion ;  and  we  had  a  deal  of  genial  talk  about  Mr.  Foster. 
His  books  and  pictures  are  kept  entire  at  Overn.  On  taking 
leave,  Miss  Foster  presented  me  with  the  Lectures,  which, 
as  coming  from  her,  I  could  not  refuse,  though  now  in  pos- 
session of  a  duplicate.  We  left  toward  eight,  and  had  a 
rapid  journey  home  through  a  lower  road  to  the  west  of  the 
former,  reaching  Whitfield  at  about  half-past  nine." 

On  Sunday  Dr.  Chalmers  preached  his  last  sermon  in  the 
Independent  Chapel  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dove — his  text  being 
Isaiah  xxvii.  4,  5.  In  the  course  of  this  visit  he  met  with 
many  Independent  ministers,  and  had  much  conversation 
with  them  relative  to  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  the  Education 
Question,  and  Voluntaryism.  On  the  last  mentioned  topic 
he  was  frequent  and  emphatic  in  his  declarations  that  he  was 
quite  satisfied,  from  the  working  of  it  in  the  Free  Church, 
that  voluntaryism  was  not  calculated  to  do  what  it  professed. 
While  ready  freely  and  fully  to  state  his  views,  he  showed 
himself  averse  to  any  thing  like  controversy.  Looking  back 
upon  a  day  which  had  been  particularly  full  of  pleasure  to 
him,  he  said,  "  There  was  just  one  flaw  upon  that  day's  en- 
joyment, I  was  too  dogmatical  on  the  Evangelical  Alliance." 
"  O  uncle,"  said  his  niece,  "  I  am  sure  they  would  not  think 
so."  "  It's  no  matter  what  ^/^e?/ thought,"  he  said  ;  "  I  fejel 
Bo  myself,  and  have  a  feeling  akin  to  self-reproach  on  the  sub- 
ject." Great  as  were  the  many  outward  attractions  of  this 
visit,  its  chief  pleasure  lay  in  the  quiet  domestic  intercourse 


^T.C7.  HIS  LAST  VISIT  TO  HIS  SISTER.  499 

with  Mrs.  Morton  and  her  family.  There  was  such  gentle- 
ness, playfulness,  lovingness,  running  through  the  whole  of  his 
deportment.  "It  was  most  delightful,"  says  his  niece,  "to 
watch  his  countenance.  I  never  saw  any  thing  like  the  smiles 
that  gleamed  one  after  another  over  it.  He  looked  so  happy, 
so  innocent,  so  childlike,  that  one  could  scarcely  fancy  him 
the  person  before  whom  men  of  greatest  intellect  felt  conscious 
inferiority."  Each  day  he  read  and  prayed  with  Mrs.  Mor- 
ton in  her  own  room.  Talcing  her  daughter  aside  on  the 
last  day  he  was  at  Whitfield,  he  took  down  the  Bible,  open- 
ed it,  and  said,  "  Come,  and  look  here."  He  then  followed 
with  his  finger  every  word,  as  he  read  the  tenth  verse  of  the 
fiftieth  chapter  of  Isaiah  ;  "  Who  is  among  you  that  feareth 
the  Lord,  that  obeyeth  the  voice  of  his  servant,  that  walketh 
in  darkness,  and  hath  no  light  ?  let  him  trust  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord,  and  stay  upon  his  God."  Now  I  am  sure  that 
you  have  the  fear  of  the  Lord  before  you — thus  obeying 
His  voice.  It  would  be  very  delightful  to  see  Jesus  as  He 
is  at  the  right  hand  of  God  ;  but  all  do  not  enjoy  this — it  is 
not  given  to  all ;  but  all  may  obey  His  voice — you  obey  that 
voice  by  honoring  your  father  and  mother — by  attending  to 
your  household  duties  ;  and  if  at  any  time  you  be  in  darkness, 
see.  here  is  what  you  have  to  do.  You  know  that  the  name 
of  a  person  is  very  little  compared  with  his  presence,  and  yet 
the  Lord  bids  you  take  His  name  and  lean  upon  it,  and  stay 
yourself  upon  it,  and  that  will  be  enough  for  you."  It  was 
in  such  simple  strains  as  this,  that  his  last  Christian  counsels 
were  given  to  the  members  of  a  family  which  had  always 
been  very  dear  to  him  ;  and  when  he  was  gone  from  them, 
the  words  and  tones  of  his  last  prayer  still  echoed  through 
that  dwelling,  as  they  remembered  how  earnestly  he  had 
asked  that  "  one  and  all  of  them  might  be  shielded  under  the 
ample  canopy  of  the  Redeemer's  righteousness;  that  every 
hour  that  struck,  every  day  that  dawned,  every  night  that 
darkened  around  them,  might  find  them  meeter  for  death, 
and  for  the  eternity  that  follows  it ;   and  that  when  their 


500  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1847. 

earthly  course  was  finished,  they  might  meet  and  spend 
together  a  never-ending  Sabbath  in  the  bright  abodes  of 
purity  and  peace." 

On  the  evening  of  Tuesday,  the  25th,  Dr.  Chalmers  and 
Mr.  Mackenzie  were  received  at  Darlington  by  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Backhouse.*"  "A  most  delicious  abode,  both  for  enjoy- 
ment and  repose.  Altogether,  Mr.  Mackenzie  and  I  are 
exceedingly  delighted  with  this  combination  of  Christianity 
and  high  culture."  Here,  too,  many  memories  of  departed 
days  and  departed  friends  were  called  up  and  fondly  dwelt 
upon.  He  listened  with  great  emotion  to  Mrs.  Backhouse's 
account  of  the  heavenly  state  of  mind  in  which  her  father 
had  lived  for  some  time  before  his  death,  and  how  particu- 
larly they  had  remarked  this  on  the  occasion  of  his  last  visit 
to  them  at  Darlington.  It  was  not  many  days  till  Mrs. 
Backhouse  wrote  of  himself  the  very  same  thing  she  had  told 
him  of  her  father.  "  I  can  not,"  she  says,  "  convey  to  you 
the  impression  he  left  on  me  of  a  loving  spirit  ripe  for  those 
joys,  for  the  realization  of  which  he  was  longing  ;  while  his 
most  kind  and  affectionate  manner  to  myself  endeared  him 
more  than  I  can  say.  His  leave-taking  was  most  affection- 
ate ;  saying,  '  I  love  you  all  with  the  affection  of  a  father.'" 
Penning  the  last  sentences  he  ever  addressed  to  Mrs.  Chal- 
mers, to  whom  the  whole  of  his  journal  letters  were  upon 
this  occasion  exclusively  directed,  Dr.  Chalmers  wrote — 
"  This  is  my  last  sheet.  To-morrow-  (Friday)  evening  I 
expect  to  see  you  by  the  favor  of  him  whose  right  hand  pre- 
serves continually,  and  for  whose  grace  on  us  all  I  ever 
pray. — I  ever  am,  my  dearest  Grace,  yours  most  affection- 
ately, Thomas  Chalmers." 

On  Friday  night  he  arrived  at  Edinburgh,  bearing  no  pe- 
culiar marks  of  fatigue  or  exhaustion.      At  breakfast  the  next 
morning  his  conversation  was  as  lively  and  vigorous  as  ever. 
He  inquired  of  the  R-ev.  Mr.  Gemmel  of  Fairlie,  who  was 
*  A  daughter  of  J.  J.  Gurney,  Esq. 


MT.  67.  HIS  LAST  SABBATH.  501 

staying  in  his  house,  what  business  had  been  before  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  on  the  preceding  evening.  When  told  that 
it  was  an  overture  relative  to  the  renewal  of  an  old  testi- 
mony by  the  Church,  he  was  not  satisfied  as  to  the  testimony 
I'equired  to  be  given — he  hoped  that  they  would  let  the  mat- 
ter alone — he  expressed  himself  unfavorable  to  any  thing 
like  a  renewal  of  the  National  Covenants,  and  that  he  pre- 
ferred the  making  the  Church's  testimony  known  rather  by 
what  it  did  than  what  it  declared.  The  forenoon  of  Satur- 
day was  occupied  in  preparing  a  report  which  he  was  to  read 
before  the  General  Assembly  on  the  following  Monday,  part 
of  which  he  now  completed,  leaving  the  remainder  to  be  ex- 
ecuted on  Monday  morning  before  he  rose.  On  Sabbath 
morning  he  did  not  rise  to  breakfast.  "  He  sent  a  message 
to  me,"  says  Mr.  Gemmel,  "  after  breakfast  to  go  and  see  him 
in  his  bedroom.  On  entering  the  room,  I  found  him  in  bed, 
reclining  on  his  back,  propped  up  with  pillows  his  head 
being  very  considerably  elevated,  which  I  believe  was  his 
usual  way  of  resting  in  bed.  His  bland  and  benevolent  coun- 
tenance beamed  upon  me  as  I  came  up  to  his  side,  and  he 
grasped  me  warmly  by  the  hand.  '  I  am  sorry  that  you  are 
unwell,  to-day,  Doctor.' — '  I  do  not  by  any  means  feel  un- 
well :  I  only  require  a  little  rest.'  He  spoke  with  the  great- 
est clearness  and  vigor  ;  and  1  could  not  think  that  any 
thing  was  wrong,  but  what  might  arise  from  the  lassitude 
produced  by  his  late  journey  and  exertions  in  the  South.  '  I 
am  rejoiced,'  said  he,  '  that  the  Assembly  have  agreed  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  grant  for  national  education  ;  and  I  trust 
that  a  sound  Scriptural  education  will  pervade  the  whole 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  Your  resolutions  are,  I 
think,  to  that  effect  ?'  I  replied,  '  Yes  ;  but  one  of  our  reso- 
lutions characterizes  the  national  scheme  as  unsound  and  lat- 
itudinarian.  I  fear  that  the  scheme  is  latitudinarian  ;  but 
I  am  not  quite  so  clear  as  to  the  use  of  the  word  unsound. 
Doddridge,  for  example,  is  latitudinarian  ;  but  I  should  be 
very  unwilling  to  call  him  unsound.      And  Baxter  is  still 


602  MEMOIRS  Or  DR.  CHALMERS.  J 847. 

more  latitudinarian  ;  but  I  should  be  very  unwilling,  in  the 
full  sense  of  the  word,  to  call  him  unsound.  There  are  what 
are  called  Baxterian  errors,  I  am  aware,  and  one  of  these  is 
in  relation  to  the  extent  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ ;  Baxter,  I 
think,  holding  that  Christ  died  for  all  men.'  Dr.  Chalmers 
answered,  *  Yes  :  Baxter  holds  that  Christ  died  for  all  men  ; 
but  I  can  not  say  that  I  am  quite  at  one  with  what  some  of 
our  friends  have  written  on  the  subject  of  the  atonement.  1 
do  not,  for  example,  entirely  agree  with  what  Mr.  Haldane 
says  on  that  subject.  I  think  that  the  word  tvorld  as 
applied  in  Scripture  to  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  has  been  un- 
necessarily restricted  ;  the  common  way  of  explaining  it  is, 
that  it  simply  includes  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews.  I  do  not 
like  that  explanation  ;  and  I  think  that  there  is  one  text  that 
puts  that  interpretation  entirely  aside.  The  text  to  which 
I  allude  is,  that  "  God  commandeth  all  ineji,  every  ivherc  to 
repent."  '  Here  the  Doctor  spoke  of  the  connection  between 
the  election  of  God,  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  the  freeness 
of  the  offer  of  the  Gospel.  He  spoke  with  great  eloquence, 
and  I  felt  as  if  he  were  in  the  pulpit,  as  some  of  his  finest 
bursts  rolled  from  his  lips.  *  In  the  offer  of  the  gospel,'  said 
he,  '  we  must  make  no  limitation  whatever.  I  compare  the" 
world  to  a  multitude  of  iron  filings  in  a  vessel,  and  the  gos- 
pel to  a  magnet.  The  minister  of  the  gospel  must  bring  the 
magnet  into  contact  w^ith  them  all :  the  secret  agency  of 
God  is  to  produce  the  attraction.' — '  But,'  said  I,  '  a  com- 
mon objection  of  the  sinner,  when  awakened  to  a  sense  of 
his  state,  is,  "  Perhaps  I  arn  not  elected  ;  and,  therefore,  I 
need  not  try."  '  '  That,'  said  he,  •  is  cutting  before  the  point. 
I  am  a  predestinarian  :  my  theology  is  that  of  Jonathan 
Edwards.'  '  You  are  a  Necessitarian,'  said  I.  '  Yes,'  was 
the  reply,  '  a  Necessitarian  ;  but  I  would  always  wish  to  be 
borne  in  mind  a  saying  of  Bishop  Butler — viz.,  "  That  we 
have  not  so  much  to  inquire  what  God  does,  or  should  do 
to  us,  as  what  are  the  duties  which  we  owe  to  Him." 
Human  beings,'  continued  Dr.  Chalmers,  '  have  the  most 


.«T.  67.  HIS  LAST  LETTER.  503 

strange  way  of  keeping  their  accounts  :  they  have  one  way 
of  keeping  their  accounts  with  the  world,  and  another  way 
of  keeping  their  accounts  with  Heaven.  In  relation  to  the 
world,  you  will  find  men  often  open,  and  generous,  and  un- 
suspicious ;  but  then  they  keep  their  accounts  with  Heaven 
in  the  most  suspicious  and  niggardly  manner — in  a  man- 
ner with  which  I  can  have  no  sympathy — continually  striv- 
ing against,  and  fighting  with  the  goodness  and  sincerity  of 
God,  and  will  not  take  God  at  his  word.'  " 

In  the  course  of  the  forenoon,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cunningham 
called,  and  went  with  Dr.  Chalmers  to  the  afternoon  service 
in  his  usual  place  of  worship — the  Free  Church  at  Morn- 
ingside.  In  accompanying  Dr.  Cuningham  a  short  distance 
on  his  way  back  to  Newington,  Dr.  Chalmers  expressed  his 
great  satisfaction  at  the  opportunity  he  had  in  London  of 
giving  his  evidence  before  the  Sites  Committee,  dwelling 
with  particular  complacency  on  the  representation  he  had 
given  of  the  position  in  which  the  Free  Church  stood  toward 
the  Establishment.  Returning  by  Bruntsfield  Links,  he 
made  his  last  call,  on  Mrs.  Coutts,  one  of  the  oldest  and 
most  beloved  of  his  Fifeshire  friends.  After  tea  he  retired 
to  his  siesta,  and  wrote  the  following  letter  to  his  sister,* 
Mrs.  Morton  : 

"  Edinburgh,  3/ay,  30th,  1847. 

"My  DEAREST  Jane — We  reached  this  in  safety  on  Friday 
night,  and  found  Mrs.  Chalmers  much  stronger  and  better, 
while  your  Lucy  is  quite  well.  What  abundant  reasons  of 
thankfulness  to  the  great  Preserver  I  May  He  be  the  sanc- 
tifier  of  us  all. 

"  I  never  expected  at  one  time  to  see  you  again  in  the 
flesh  ;  but  now  I  will  form  no  definite  prospect  of  any 
futurity  on  this  side  of  the  grave.  I  am  exceedingly  happy 
that  we  have  met,  and  have  derived  from  my  visit  fresh  ac- 

*  This  letter  was  found  next  morning  upon  his  table,  along  with 
the  writing  materials,  which,  as  usual,  lay  within  his  reach. 


504  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS.  1847 

cessions  of  kindly  feeling  and  good-will  for  one  and  all  of  you  ; 
for  Mr.  Morton,  and  Anne,  and  Mrs,  Norton,  and  I  like  Mr. 
Norton,  and  do  hope  and  pray  that  you  may  be  blest  more 
and  more  in  all  your  relations  and  connections. 

"  Give  my  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Maclellan,  and  with 
earnest  prayers  for  the  mercy  and  grace  of  a  reconciled  Father 
in  heaven  on  one  and  all  of  us — I  ever  am,  my  dearest  Jane, 
yours  very  truly  and  affectionately, 

"  Thomas  Chalmers." 

"  Mrs.  Mortou." 

He  went  out,  after  writing  this  note,  into  the  garden 
behind  his  house  ;  sauntering  round  which  he  was  overhead 
by  one  of  his  family,  in  low  but  very  earnest  tones,  saying, 
"  O  Father,  my  Heavenly  Father  I"  On  returning  to  the 
drawing-room,  he  threw  himself  into  his  usual  rechning 
posture.  His  conversation  at  first  was  joyous  and  playful ; 
a  shadow  passed  over  him  as  some  disquieting  thought  arose 
— but  a  light  spread  over  his  face  as  he  said,  that  disqui- 
etudes lay  light  upon  a  man  who  could  fix  his  heart  on 
heaven.  "I'm  fond,"  he  said,  "of  the  Sabbath.  'Hail 
sacred  Sabbath  morn  I'  Do  you  like  Grahame's  Sabbath, 
Mr.  Gemrnel  ?  Dr.  Johnson  was  very  wrong  in  saying 
that  there  can  be  no  true  poetry  that  is  religious."  "  At 
supper,"  says  Mr.  Gemmel,  "  I  sat  near  him,  at  his  right 
hand.  'Are  you  much  acquainted  with  the  Puritan  Divines, 
Mr.  Gemmel  ?'  said  he.  I  answered  that  I  was,  in  some 
measure.  '  Which  do  you  chiefly  admire  ?'  '  I  think  very 
much  of  Howe,'  was  my  reply.  'And  so  do  I,'  said  he;  'he 
is  my  favorite  author.  I  think  that  he  is  the  first  of  the 
Puritan  divines.  I  can  not  say  that  I  take  much  to  his 
image  of  a  living  temple  ;  but  I  have  been  lately  reading  his 
"  Delighting  in  God,"  and  I  admire  it  much.' 

"  After  supper,  addressing  me,  '  You  gave  us  worship,' 
said  he,  '  in  the  morning  ;  I  am  sorry  to  ask  you  again  to 
give  worship  in  the  evening.'      '  Not  at  all,'  said  I,  '  I  will 


^T.  67.  HIS  DEATH.  505 


be  happy  to  do  so.'  'Well,'  said  he,  'you  will  give  worship 
to-night ;  and  /  exjjeci  to  give  ivorshij)  to-morroio  morn- 
ing' Before  worship  commenced,  and  just  as  the  servants 
were  preparing  to  come  up-stairs,  he  asked  me  whether  I  had 
read  the  sermons  of  Mr.  Purves  of  Jedburgh.  T  answered 
that  I  had  not.  '  They  are  very  excellent  sermons,'  said 
he  ;  '  and  there  is  one,  in  which  he  rids  the  marches  between 
the  election  of  God  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  freeness  of  the 
Gospel  on  the  other,  which  is  admirable.'  " 

During  the  whole  of  the  evening,  as  if  he  had  kept  his 
brightest  smiles  and  fondest  utterances  to  the  last,  and  for 
his  own,  he  was  peculiarly  bland  and  benignant.  "  I  had 
seen  him  frequently,"  says  Mr.  Gemmel,  "  at  Fairlie,  and 
in  his  most  happy  moods,  but  I  never  saw  him  happier. 
Christian  benevolence  beamed  from  his  countenance,  sparkled 
in  his  eye,  and  played  upon  his  lips."  Immediately  after 
prayers  he  withdrew,  and  bidding  his  family  remember  that 
they  must  be  early  to-morrow,  he  waved  his  hand,  saying, 
"  A  general  good-night." 

Next  morning  before  eight  o'clock,  Professor  MacDougall, 
who  lived  in  the  house  adjoining,  sent  to  inquire  about  a  pack- 
et of  papers  which  he  had  expected  to  receive  at  an  earlier 
hour.  The  housekeeper  who  had  been  long  in  the  family, 
knocked  at  the  door  of  Dr.  Chalmers's  room,  but  received  no 
answer.  Concluding  that  he  was  asleep,  and  unwilling  to 
disturb  him,  she  waited  till  another  party  called  with  a 
second  message  ;  she  then  entered  the  room — it  was  in 
darkness  ;  she  spoke,  but  there  was  no  response.  At  last  she 
threw  open  the  window-shutters,  and  drew  aside  the  curtains 
of  the  bed.  lie  sat  there,  half  erect,  his  head  reehning 
gently  on  the  pillow  ;  the  expression  of  his  countenance  that 
of  fixed  and  majestic  repose.  She  took  his  hand — she 
touched  his  brow;  he  had  been  dead  for  hours:  very  shortly 
after  that  parting  salute  to  his  family  he  had  entered  the 
eternal  world.  It  must  have  been  wholly  without  pain  or 
conflict.      The  expression  of  the  face  undisturbed  by  a  single 

VOL,   TV. — Y 


506  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALME^IS.  1847. 

trace  of  suffering,  the  position  of  the  body  so  easy  that  the 
least  struggle  would  have  disturbed  it,  the  very  posture  of 
arms  and  hands  and  fingers,  known  to  his  family  as  that  into 
which  they  fell  naturally  in  the  moments  of  entire  repose — 
conspired  to  show,  that,  saved  all  strife  witVi  the  last  enemy, 
his  spirit  had  passed  to  its  place  of  blessedness  and  glory  iti 
the  heavens. 

"  Servant  of  God,  well  done  .' 
Rest  from  thy  loved  employ ; 
The  battle  o'er,  the  victory  won, 
Enter  thy  Master's  joy. 

"The  cry  at  midnight  came, 

He  started  up  to  hear; 
A  mortal  arrow  pierced  his  frame — 
He  fell,  but  felt  no  fear. 

"  His  spirit  with  a  bound 

Left  its  encumbering  clay  ; 
His  tent  at  sunrise  on  the  ground 
A  darkened  ruin  lay." 

See  Appendix,  L. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX,  A.— P.  59. 

Extract  from  Sedgewick's  "Discourse  on  the  Studies  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge." — Appendix,  Note  E. 

"When  on  this  question  I  may  allude  to  a  conversation  I  once  held 
with  the  illustrious  philosopher  La  Place.  It  was  in  his  sick-chamber, 
which  I  believe  he  never  left,  and  not  many  days  before  his  death. 
Among  other  subjects,  he  inquired  into  the  nature  of  our  endowments 
and  our  course  of  academic  study,  which  I  explained  to  him  at  full 
length.  He  then  dwelt  earnestly  on  the  religious  character  of  our  en- 
dowments, and  added,  as  nearly  as  I  can  translate  his  words,  '  I  think 
this  right ;  and  on  this  point  I  should  deprecate  any  great  organic 
changes  in  your  system  ;  for  I  have  lived  long  enough  to  know,  what 
I  did  not  at  one  time  believe,  that  no  society  can  be  upheld  in  happi- 
ness and  honor  without  the  sentiments  of  religion.'  The  dying  philoso- 
pher may,  while  using  these  words,  have  had  nothing  in  his  mind 
beyond  the  principles  of  worldly  wisdom  and  the  bearing  of  religious 
sentiments  on  the  order  and  wellbeing  of  the  State.  On  this  point  I 
venture  not  to  inquire  ;  but  the  words  record  a  great  practical  truth,  and 
having  fallen  so  impressively  from  his  lips  are  surely  worth  recording." 


APPENDIX,  B.— P.  172. 

As  the  misunderstanding  between  Lord  Aberdeen  and  Dr.  Chalmers 
hinged  so  much  upon  this  point,  'I  subjoin  the  following  from  Dr.  Chal- 
mers's correspondence  at  this  period  : 

Extracts  from  Letters  of  the  Rev.  Robert  Buchanan,  Glasgow. 

"  London,  February  26th,  1840. — I  have  had  along  and  interesting 
conversation  with  Lord  Aberdeen.     I  think  I  have  put  an  end  to  all 


508  xMF.MOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMKRS. 

misunderstanding  between  him  and  the  Committee.  I  read  to  him  a 
sentence  of  a  letter  of  Mr.  Dunlop  received  this  morning,  in  which  he 
expressed  himself  as  afraid  his  Lordship  was  insisting  on  the  Presbytery 
sustaining  the  reasonableness  of  the  dissent,  in  every  case  in  which  they 
chose  to  give  effect  to  it.  He  does  not  mean  this  at  all.  Even  though 
the  Presbytery  should  think  the  dissent  unreasonable,  abstractly  con- 
sidered, still,  if  they  were  of  opinion  that,  in  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  it  was  not  for  edification  the  settlement  should  go  on,  they  should 
have  full  liberty,  for  that  reason  of  their  own,  to  reject  the  presentee. 

"  London,  March  10th,  1840. — Lord  Aberdeen  thinks  there  is  now 
not  the  least  chance  of  the  Government  proposing  to  legalize  the  Veto; 
and  hopes,  in  conseqence,  that  their  measure,  if  they  do  propose  one, 
may  be  of  a  character  which  he  and  his  friends  will  be  able  to  support. 
He  told  me  that  Lord  Melbourne,  and  one  or  two  other  members  of  the 
Government,  had  been  more  than  once  consulting  confidentially  with 
him  on  the  subject,  though  he  did  not  seem  to  be  sure  what  they  might 
ultimately  resolve  to  do.  Seeing  that  he  is  in  communication  with  Gov- 
ernment, I  thought  it  as  well  to  hint  at  a  specific  measure,  and  reverted 
to  the  scheme  described  in  my  letter  of  the  26th.  He  appeared  still 
quite  favorable  to  it,  and  if  the  Government  propose  such  a  measure,  I 
am  quite  confident  he  and  his  friends  will  support  it. 

"  Glasgow,  jipril  1st,  1840. — After  I  wrote  you  from  London  on 
Monday  afternoon,  I  went  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  hear  Lord  Aber- 
deen put  his  question  to  Lord  Melbourne.  The  newspapers  will  have 
informed  you  of  what  passed  on  that  occasion,  as  well  as  at  the  same 
time  between  Sir  R.  Peel  and  Lord  John  Russell  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, While  there  I  sav/  ]Mr.  Colquhoun,  who  told  me  he  had  just 
been  talking  with  Mr.  Bannerman,  M.P.  for  Aberdeen,  who  spoke  in 
this  way  of  the  intentions  of  Govei-nment :  '  That  they  were  very  far 
from  abandoning  the  intention  to  legislate  ;  on  the  contrary,  that  they 
would  have  their  proposed  measure  printed — in  this  way  afford  an  op- 
portunity to  the  Church,  country,  &c.,  to  give  their  opinions  on  it — and 
that  after  the  Assembly  they  would  bring  it  into  Parliament  !' 

"  In  short,  they  wish  to  keep  up  the  appearance  of  still  intending  tc 
deal  with  the  question,  and  to  act  favorably  toward  the  Church. 

"Now  it  is  neither  our  duty  nor  our  interest  to  quarrel  with  the 
Government,  but  we  must  not  suffer  ourselves  to  be  humbugged.  The 
Committee  can,  of  course,  accept  nothing  as  intended  by  Government, 
but  what  they  stated  to  the  deputation — and  that  was,  that  they  would 
not  venture  to  legislate,  at  least  at  present.  Now,  as  the  Committee 
esteem  it  to  be  necessary  to  have  legislation  at  least  begun  before  the 
Assembly,  we  are  shut  up  to  the  course  alluded  to  in  my  letter  of 
Monday,  of  immediately  negotiating  with  Lord  Aberdeen.  Now  the 
Scylla  and  Charybdis  of  the  case  are  these  :  If  Government  had  pro- 
posed the  popular  veto.  Lord  Aberdeen  and  his  friends  would  oppose 


APPEiNDlX.  509 


it ;  if  the  latter  propose  the  Presbyterial  veto,  Government  woxM  op- 
pose. In  such  circumstances,  neither  raeasm-e  could  be  carried.  Now 
Lord  Aberdeen  is  quite  alive  to  this ;  and  to  avoid  this  danger,  as  well 
as  for  the  sake  of  many  other  advantages  the  plan  possesses,  he  is  very 
favorably  inclined  toward  the  positive  form  of  the  call.  He  did  not,  of 
course,  say  he  would  pledge  himself  to  support  such  a  measure  until  he 
had  more  maturely  considered  it,  and  ascertained  the  opinions  of  some 
friends  whose  concurrence  would  be  indispensable.  But  I  am  strongl}'^ 
persuaded  that  if  the  Committee  strongly  and  unanimously  urge  it,  and 
speak  with  confidence  of  its  being  certain  to  be  satisfactory  to  the 
Church  and  country  at  large,  he  would  undertake  it.  He  will  not 
inti-oduce  any  measure,  unless  he  has  it  in  his  power  to  say  it  would 
give  satisfaction  to  the  Church.  The  positive  call  would  not  be  op- 
posed by  Government,  and  would  therefore,  if  introduced  by  the  Con- 
servatives, be  sure  to  carry.  Moreover,  it  would  not  be  so  offensive 
to  the  minority  of  the  Church,  as  not  being  the  measure  they  are 
pledged  to  oppose.  It  gets  rid  of  many  difficulties.  The  Act  of  Par- 
liament authorizing  it  need  be  not  more  than  a  couple  of  sentences.  In 
short,  for  many  more  reasons  than  I  have  time  at  this  moment  to  state, 
I  am  deeply  persuaded  that  the  whole  energies  of  the  Committee  should 
be  bent  toward  the  inducing  of  Lord  Aberdeen  to  take  up  this  measure. 
The  chief  difficulty  will  be  getting  him  to  agree  that  the  concurrence 
of  a  majority  should  be  necessary.  Now  the  Church  can  and  ought  to 
agree  to  its  being  a  majority  of  those  communicants  assembled  in  con- 
gregation at  the  moderation  of  the  call ;  and  Lord  Aberdeen  admitted 
that  practically  this  would  not  be  a  greater  portion  of  the  parish,  than 
he  would  think  it  '  wise  and  just'  to  require  the  concurrence  of.  But 
as  it  would  theoretically  look  more,  the  patrons  may  boggle  at  it.  Still, 
from  the  way  he  spoke,  I  do  not  think  he  despairs  of  getting  their 
acquiescence.  In  short,  nothing  can  be  more  satisfactory  than  his 
whole  tone  and  language  upon  the  subject. 

^^  London,  1  Lancaster  Place,  Strand,  21th  April,  1840. — I  put  my 
views  thus  to  Lord  Aberdeen  :  That  there  were  two  grounds  on  which 
we  (meaning  the  Non-Intrusionists  in  the  coming  Assembly)  might  op- 
pose a  bill ;  one,  the  ground  of  conscience — the  other,  the  ground  of 
expediency.  That  if  his  Lordship's  Bill  should  be  found  to  involve  the 
former  ground  of  objection,  we  must  resist  it  at  all  hazai'ds  ;  that  if  it 
involved  only  the  latter  ground  of  objection,  we  would  no  doubt  state 
that  objection,  and  point  out  what  we  might  think  more  desirable,  but 
that  we  would  submit  to  act  under  it,  rather  than  peril  the  existence 
of  the  Establishment.  And  that  his  Lordship  might  understand  what 
was  meant  by  the  '  ground  of  conscience,'  I  explained  that  any  measure 
which  did  not  leave  the  Church  Courts  free  and  unfettered  to  say  when 
the  pastoral  tie  should  be  bound  and  when  not — when  they  would  go 
on  with  a  settlement,  and  when  they  would  refuse — that  any  measure 


510  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

which  did  not  do  this,  would  be  held  as  interfering  with  the  conscience 
of  the  Church  Court,  and  would  therefore  be  repudiated  at  whatever 
cost.     He  said,  in  answer,  '  I  mean  to  give  you  all  that  power.' 

'•  Rob.  Buchana>'." 

Extracts  from  Letters  of  Sir  William  Rae  to  Dr.  Chalmers 
AND  jNIr.  Thomson. 

'•  London.  February  5th,  1840. — It  gave  me  much  satisfaction  to 
learn  from  a  letter  from  Mr.  Dunlop.  as  Secretary  to  the  Assembly's 
Committee,  that  the  suggestion  which  I  made  for  restoring  to  a  certain 
extent  the  provisions  of  the  Act  1690,  had  been  viewed  by  the  Com- 
mittee as  fitted  to  form  a  basis  for  a  satisfactory  arrangement.  I  need 
hardly  say  that  I  never  contemplated  hampering  the  Presbytery  in  any 
way  whatever,  in  dealing  with  the  reasons  assigned  by  the  parishion- 
ers, or  disposing  of  the  whole  affair.  I  should  hold  them  responsible 
for  their  actings  solely  at  the  bar  of  the  .superior  Church  Judicatories, 
and  at  that  of  public  opinion. 

^'London.  March  25th.  1840. — The  Government  seems  greatly 
puzzled  what  to  do  with  your  Kirk  question.  After  the  Cabinet  had  deli- 
berated on  Saturday,  instead  of  stating  the  result  upon  ]Monday;  they  re- 
solved to  hold  a  meeting  of  their  friends  in  our  House  upon  Tuesday,  to 
consider  the  matter.  This  took  place,  and  such  was  the  difference  of 
opinion,  that  they  were  obliged  to  adjourn  the  meeting  to  another  day. 
I  should  not  wonder  if  it  was  to  end  in  their  declaring  that  they  meant 
to  do  nothinor.  The  course  which  the  Dissenters  have  taken,  and  along 
with  these  the  Radical  party  in  our  House,  joined  to  the  little  real  in- 
fluence which  the  more  violent  Church  party  are  proved  to  possess  by 
the  result  of  the  Perth  election,  will  doubtless  bear  on  their  decision. 
You  hint  at  my  trying  my  hand  upon  the  subject,  but  that  is  out  of  the 
question.  I  am  willing  to  go  as  far  as  Mr.  Drummond  has  moved, 
thereby  putting  it  in  the  power  of  the  Presbytery  to  give  effect  to  the 
objections  of  the  people,  however  absurd  or  unexplainable  these  may 
be :  the  Presbytery*  acting  under  the  control  of  public  opinion,  and 
that  of  the  superior  Church  Courts  alone.  This  I  believe  would  satisfy 
Dr.  Chalmers,  and  most  reasonable  men.  But  what  security  could 
we  have  that  an  enactment  of  that  nature,  brought  in  by  an  individual 
member,  would  be  submitted  to  by  the  whole  Church,  either  now  or 
hereafter.  Wm.  Rae." 

Extracts  prom  Letters  of  J.  C.  Colquhoun,  Esq. 
"  Putney  Heath.  February  2^th,  1840.— You  will  learn  from  Mr. 
Dunlop  the  particulars  of  his  mission — the  little  success  he  heis 
met  with  from  this  Government.  I  hope  he  will  report  to  you  that 
there  is  no  indisposition  on  the  part  of  Lord  Aberdeen  to  meet  the 
views  of  the  Church,  at  least  to  a  large  extent.     I  indulge  the  hope 


APPENDIX.  511 


that  he  may  even  go  yet  further  in  favor  of  popular  right ;  the  Presby- 
terial  right  of  rejection,  Lord  Aberdeen  admits  to  its  fullest  extent. 

"  Putney  Heathy  April  20iA,  1840. — The  two  essential  points  which 
I  am  most  anxious  to  see  clearly  embodied  in  Lord  Aberdeen's  Bill,  are 
the  liberum  arbitrium  of  the  Presbytery  on  the  dissent  of  the  people — 
the  other,  the  clear  severance  between  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  juris- 
dictions ;  so  that  where  the  one  ends,  supreme  in  its  own  territory,  the 
other  shall  begin,  and  its  decisions  be  unreviewed  by  any  Civil  Court 
in  the  land.     I  take  this  to  be  indispensable. 

"  Putney  Heath,  May  19th,  1840. — I  saw  Lord  Aberdeen  yesterday, 
but  was  unable  to  bring  him  to  any  satisfactory  conclusion.  I  was 
glad,  however,  to  find  that  Mr.  Home  Drummond  and  Sir  James 
Graham  quite  concur  with  me  in  the  propriety  of  the  Presbyterial  dis- 
cretion being  free,  always  understanding  by  that,  that  there  is  to  be  no 
such  rule  as  that  laid  down  in  the  Veto  Act,  by  which  the  Presbytery 
are  to  accept  the  dissent  of  the  people  as  a  conclusion,  barring  the  fur- 
ther inquiry  of  the  Church  Courts.  J.  C.  Colquhoun." 

Extract  fkom  Letter  of  Sir  George  Clerk. 

^^  London,  February  7th,  1840. — I  herewith  send  you  a  copy  of  the 
'Morning  Post,'  which  contains  the  most  accurate  report  of  the  obser- 
vations of  Lord  Aberdeen  on  the  present  position  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  also  of  Lord  Melbourne's  reply  to  the  question  whether 
the  Government  w^ere  prepared  to  introduce  any  measure  on  the  sub- 
ject. There  is  one  slight  inaccuracy  in  the  report  of  what  Lord  Aber- 
deen said  with  respect  to  the  judgment  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the 
Auchterarder  case.  He  said,  '  that  he  did  not  acquiesce  in  all  the 
declarations  of  opinion  expressed  in  delivering  that  judgment,  though 
he  entirely  concurred  in  the  justice  of  the  decision  itself.'  It  is  now 
clear,  from  Lord  Melbourne's  reply,  that  the  Government  have  not 
made  up  their  minds  as  to  the  course  to  be  taken.  Unless,  therefore, 
your  Committee,  acting  on  the  part  of  the  General  Assembly,  prepare 
a  legislative  measure  yourselves,  I  doubt  whether  any  thing  can  be 
done  toward  a  settlement  of  this  important  question,  as  amidst  the 
pressure  of  business  while  Parliament  is  sitting,  I  fear  there  is  little 
probability  that  the  Government  will  find  time  for  its  due  considera- 
tion. 

"  No  Member  of  Parliament,  unconnected  with  the  Government, 
could  bring  forward  any  measure  with  the  smallest  hopes  of  success, 
unless  he  were  assured  either  of  the  cordial  support  of  the  Church  in 
Scotland,  or  of  the  Government  here. 

"  The  recent  communications  which  have  been  made  by  direction  of 
your  Committee,  by  your  Secretaries,  to  Lord  Aberdeen,  Sir  Willinm 
Rae,  and  myself,  would  lead  me  to  hope  that  the  points  of  difTereiK-e 
between  us  are  now  so  much  narrowed  that  little  difficulty  would  be 


512  MLMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

found  to  exist  in  framing  a  measure  that  might  be  very  generally  ap- 
proved of. 

"  Lord  Aberdeen,  I  believe,  has  already  explained  to  you  that  he  con- 
curs in  every  point  with  me,  and  adopts  the  plan  I  took  the  liberty  of 
stating  in  my  letter  to  you  of  the  21st  of  January,  and  which  I  rejoice 
to  learn  is  considered  satisfactoi-y  to  your  Committee.  That  has  been 
restated  by  Sir  William  Rae  in  a  more  concise  form,  who  has  shown 
that  a  combination  of  the  provisions  of  the  Act  1690  with  the  Act  of 
Anne  would  be  all  that  is  required.  I  think  that  an  Act  to  explain  tho 
meaning  of  the  words  of  the  Act  of  Anne,  '  ihat  the  Presbytery  is  to  re- 
ceive and  admit  in  the  same  manner  as  the  persons  presented  before  the 
making  of  this  Act  ought  to  have  been  admitted,''  to  be  according  to  the 
mode  of  procedure  prescribed  in  the  Act  1690,  would,  without  almost 
any  thing  further,  remove  all  the  present  difficulties  of  the  Church. 

"I  hope  the  Procurator  may  be  authorized  by  your  Committee  to 
draw  up  the  heads  of  a  bill  on  this  basis,  as  the  only  chance  of  a  settle- 
ment of  the  question,  before  the  next  meeting  of  Assembly. 

"  George  Clerk." 

Extracts  from  Letters  of  John  Hamilton,  Esq.,   Advocate. 

'■'■London^  April  13f/i,  1840. — To-day  I  have  had  a  long  conversa- 
tion w^ith  Sir  James  Graham,  who  stated  his  views  very  explicitly. 
They  come  up,  in  the  fullest  manner,  to  the  Committee's  minimum 
measure — an  entire  exclusion  of  the  Civil  Courts,  and  an  absolute  re- 
linquishment of  the  patron's  and  presentee's  rights  to  the  arbitrium  of 
the  Church  Courts.      At  present  he  is  no  way  inclined  to  go  further. 

^'London,  April  loth,  1840. — I  had  another  long  conversation  with 
Lord  Aberdeen  this  morning.  Had  we  to  deal  with  Lord  Aberdeen 
alone,  we  should  not  have  much  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  popular  meas- 
ure, but  from  what  he  says  it  is  apparent  that  the  obstacles  lie  with 
others,  and  that  they  are  such  as  his  Lordship  conceives  to  be  abso- 
lutely insuperable  ;  at  the  same  time,  I  understatid  that  his  measure 
will  be  a  full  and  honest  one,  according  to  its  own  nature — one  which 
will  studiously  avoid  all  interference  with  the  independence  of  the 
Church,  and  will  expressly  enact  an  entire  exclusion  of  the  Civil  Court. 
Such  a  measure  will  form  a  prodigious  step  in  advance  for  the  Church; 
and  our  friends  in  the  Committee  who  are  the  most  anxious  to  go 
further  should  weigh  well  the  hazard  to  which  we  may  expose  all  bv 
attempting  now  to  drive  matters  to  extremities.  His  Lordship  stated, 
that  from  his  personal  communications  with  members  of  the  Govern- 
ment he  was  persuaded  that  the  Government  would  not  oppose  his 
measure,  provided  it  met  with  a  fair  and  candid  reception  on  the  part 
of  the  Church ;  and  the  object  which  he  will  keep  steadily  in  view,  in 
framing  his  measure,  will  be  to  make  it,  in  all  points,  as  acceptable  to 
livt  C^hurch  as  the  general  nature  of  the  measure  will  possibly  admit 


APPENDIX.  513 


^^  London,  April  20th,  1840. — I  have  had  another  long  conversation 
with  Lord  Aberdeen  to-day,  and  must  confess  to  you  that  his  views  on 
some  points  do  not  seem  to  me  so  satisfactory  as  I  could  wish.  At  the 
same  time,  it  is  not  easy  to  come  precisely  to  a  point  with  him  until 
his  views  are  actually  embodied  in.  the  shape  of  a  Bill,  or  are  at  least 
expressed  in  such  explicit  terms  as  he  deliberately  states  will  be  satis- 
lactory  to  him.  Until  I  came  to  London  I  always  understood  his  Lord- 
.^hip  was  prepared  to  allow  to  the  Church  Courts  a  liberum  arbitrium  to 
decide  upon  the  case  of  every  presentee,  according  to  the  whole  cir- 
cumstances,  as  they  might  present  themselves,  but  he  rather  seems 
disposed  to  limit  the  Church  Courts  to  a  simple  power  o[ judging  upon 
the  merits  of  the  objections  stated  by  the  people.  Is  this  last  your  un- 
derstanding of  his  Lordship's  intention  ?  and  does  it  occur  to  you  that  a 
measure  upon  such  a  principle  would  be  acceptable  to  the  Church,  or 
ought  to  be  so  ? 

'^London,  April  2Ath,  1840. — I  was  led  to  express  myself  doubt- 
fully in  my  last  respecting  the  character  of  the  measure  contemplated 
by  Lord  Aberdeen,  in  consequence  of  the  manifestly  inconsistent  way 
in  which  he  expressed  himself  when  I  came  fairly  to  converse  with  him 
over  the  whole  subject.  In  treating  of  the  matter,  in  one  view  of  it, 
his  expressions  were  all  that  we  could  wish,  but,  in  coming  round  to 
another  view  of  it,  he  expressed  his  fixed  purpose  and  object  to  be 
something  in  which  we  should  have  found  it  impossible  to  acquiesce. 
His  notions,  in  fact,  were  totally  incompatible  one  with  another.  He 
had  some  sense  of  this  himself,  but  said  that  his  intention  was,  if  pos- 
sible, to  realize  them  both  in  the  measure  he  was  to  produce.  How 
this  was  to  be  effected  I  could  not,  for  my  life,  conceive  ;  and  I  am 
happy  to  find  that,  in  his  conversation  yesterday  with  Mr.  Buchanan, 
his  Lordship  stated  that  he  had  found  it  pi'actically  impossible  to  recon- 
cile two  conflicting  objects,  and  that  he  had  in  consequence  given  up 
all  idea  of  carrying  into  effect  that  which  is  opposed  to  our  views,  and 
is  to  confine  himself  to  that  which  is  likely  to  afford  us  satisfaction. 
Still,  however,  I  am  a  little  anxious  until  I  see  the  way  in  which  his 
Lordship  expresses  himself  in  his  Bill.  From  all  I  have  heard  from 
his  Lordship,  I  doubt  extremely  if  he  is  yet  prepared  to  subscribe  to  the 
view  so  distinctly  stated  in  the  extract  you  gave  me  from  Sir  George 
Clerk's  letter.  I  suspect  his  Lordship  contemplates  placing  the  power 
of  the  Presbytery  on  a  somewhat  different  footing  from  what  Sir  George 
there  does.  At  the  same  time,  I  hope  that,  practically,  his  Lordship's 
way  of  putting  it  will  come  to  the  same  result,  so  that  we  need  not 
make  any  insuperable  objections  to  it.  My  last  conversation  with  his 
Lordship,  and  Mr.  Buchanan's  yesterday,  ended  exactly  in  the  same 
point,  viz.,  that  we  could  say  nothing  further  on  the  matter  until  we 
s  iw  the  Bill.  This,  Mr.  Buchanan  has  informed  you,  we  are  to  do 
oil  Monday,  if  nothing  unforeseen  occurs ;  and  then  we  shall  know 


514  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

definitively  where  we  stand.  I  feel  considerable  confidence  that  the 
result  will  be  favorable,  as  Lord  Aberdeen'.s  intentions  are  perfectly 
fair,  and  his  desire  to  bring  matters  to  a  satisfactory  issue  is  raost 
sincere. 

"  London,  May  6th,  1840. — I  have  just  had  a  long  conversation  with 
Sir  George  Clerk,  the  result  of  which  was  that  he  expressed  his  clear 
opinion  that  the  Bill  ought  to  be  altered  in  the  way  that  we  recom- 
mended ;  and  he  is  in  consequence  gone  to  Lord  Aberdeen  in  the  hopes 
of  getting  his  Lordship  to  agree  to  one  alteration  being  now  introduced 
before  the  Bill  is  printed  for  the  House.  I  have  marked  the  alteration 
in  pencil  on  the  inclosed  copy;  and  you  will  see  it  to  be  in  the  most 
essential  part  of  the  Bill ;  and  if  it  is  once  introduced,  a  few  other  slight 
verbal  alterations  here  and  there  will  make  the  Bill  quite  to  our  satis- 
faction, and  these  there  wnll  be  no  difficulty  in  getting  afterward 
attended  to. 

"iowrfow,  May  7th,  1840. — I  regret  to  say  that  Sir  George  Clerk 
found  Lord  Aberdeen  quite  firm  not  to  admit  at  present  any  alterations 
of  the  nature  to  which  I  referred  in  my  last. 

^^  London,  May  7th,  1840. — The  Bill,  as  it  stands,  will  appear  to 
you,  as  it  is,  in  fact,  decidedly  defective,  inasmuch  as  it  does  not  di- 
rectly and  unequivocally  confer  upon  the  Church  Courts  a  full  power 
to  dispose  of  each  case  as  it  occurs,  according  to  its  circumstances,  and 
according  to  the  discretion  and  conscientious  convictions  which  the 
Church  Courts  may  have  in  regard  to  it.  This  defect  in  the  Bill  is 
designed  and  intentional  on  the  part  of  Lord  Aberdeen.  I  stated  to  you 
formerly,  in  general  terms,  that  his  Lordship  appeared  to  me  (before 
the  Bill  was  actually  framed)  to  have  two  objects  in  view,  which  ap- 
peared to  me  to  be  absolutely  incompatible.  These  objects  were,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  confer  on  the  Church  Courts  a  full  and  unfettered  dis- 
cretion— a  liberum  arbitrium — in  the  discharge  of  their  duty  in  every 
individual  case ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  confer  this  power  in  such  a 
way  as  would  make  it  impossible  for  the  Church  Courts  to  give  effect 
to  the  dissents  of  a  majority,  however  great,  of  the  congregation,  unless 
the  grounds  of  that  dissent  were  valid  and  sufficient  in  the  judgment  of 
the  Church  Courts.  I  mentioned  to  you  further,  that  at  the  first  meet- 
ing Mr.  Buchanan  had  with  his  Lordship,  his  Lordship  stated  that  he 
had  found,  on  full  consideration,  that  the  latter  object  was  incompatible 
with  the  former,  and  that  he  had  therefore  given  up  all  idea  of  attain- 
ing it  by  his  Bill,  which  he  intended  should  intrust  a  full  and  uncondi- 
tional discretion  with  the  Presbytery.  Subsequently  to  this  conversation, 
however,  his  Lordship  had  reverted  to  his  original  idea,  and  accordingly, 
the  Bill,  as  originally  submitted  by  him  to  us,  actually  contained  a 
clause  expressly  discharging  and  prohibiting  the  Church  Courts  from 
giving  effect  to  the  dissents  of  the  people,  where  they  (the  Church  Courts) 
did  not  find  the  reasons  supporting  the  dissents  to  be  solid  and  sufficient. 


APPENDIX.  515 


This  clause,  and  various  other  expressions  throughout  the  Bill — all 
tending  to  limit  the  powers  of  the  Church  to  a  judgment  upon  the  rea- 
sonableness of  the  people's  dissents — his  Lordship  struck  out,  at  our 
suggestion  5  but  still  he  refused  to  make  the  requisite  alterations  on 
what  we  considered  to  be  the  most  essential  parts,  and  what  his  Lord- 
ship also  distinctly  recognized  as  the  most  essential,  and  stated  that  it 
was  just  because  they  were  the  most  essential  that  he  declined  to  alter 
them.  His  Lordship,  for  the  present,  seems  to  be  very  firm  in  that 
determination ;  and  after  conferring  with  Mr.  Buchanan  you  will  be 
able  to  judge  how  far  it  is  right  to  try  still  to  influence  him,  and  what 
means  are  the  most  likely  to  have  that  effect. 

"I  am  satisfied  that  not  only  Sir  George  Clerk,  but  Mr.  Home 
Drummond,  Sir  James  Graham,  Sir  William  Rae,  &c.,  are  perfectly 
ready  and  willing  that  the  Bill  should  be  put  into  the  most  satisfactory 
shape  which  its  nature  admits  of;  and  the  objectionable  matter  which 
still  remains  in  it  is  to  be  ascribed  to  nothing  but  an  unfortunate  bias  in 
Lord  Aberdeen's  mind.  It  so  happens,  however,  that  the  Bill  is  Lord 
Aberdeen's  Bill,  and  it  is  hardly,  if  at  all,  possible  to  get  it  altered, 
except  by  moving  his  Lordship  himself,  which  Sir  George  Clerk  at  least 
has  failed  to  do  as  entirely  as  Mr.  Buchanan  and  myself  have  done. 

'■'■London^  May  14f/i,  1840. — I  had  a  conversation  to-day,  for  nearly 
two  hours,  with  Sir  George  Clerk,  who  intends  (first,  privately)  to  urge 
Lord  Aberdeen  to  come  frankly  into  our  views,  and  failing  that,  the 
purpose  is,  as  I  mentioned,  to  hold  a  meeting  of  Scotch  Conservative 
members,  with  a  view  of  bringing  their  joint  influence  to  bear  on  his 
Lordship.  What  the  result  may  be  I  know  not.  In  the  meantime 
matters  are  kept  in  suspense  by  my  not  hearing  from  you  as  to  your 
proceedings  on  Monday,  or  with  the  remonstrance  or  representation 
which  I  was  informed  you  were  likely  to  forward  to  Lord  Aberdeen  and 
the  Conservative  members  here.  I  found  Sir  George  Clerk  much  less 
indisposed  than  I  expected  to  admit  a  clause  into  the  Bill  restricting 
the  interference  of  the  Civil  Courts  to  a  withdrawal  of  the  temporali- 
ties, J.  Hamilton." 


APPENDIX,  C— P.  295. 

Claim,  Declakation,  and  Protest,  anent  the  Encroachjments  of 
THE  Court  of  Session.     General  Assembly  1842. — Act  XIX. 

"  Edinburgh,  30th  May,  1842.     Sess.  17. 
"  The  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  taking 
mto  consideration  the  solemn  circumstances  in  which,  in  the  inscrutable 
providence  of  God,  this  Church  is  now  placed ;  and  that,  notwithstand- 
ing the  securities  for  the  government  thereof  by  General  Assemblies, 


516  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

Synods,  Presbyteries,  and  Kirk-Sessions,  and  for  the  liberties,  govern- 
ment, jurisdiction,  discipline,  rights,  and  privileges  of  the  same,  provided 
by  the  statutes  of  the  realm,  by  the  constitution  of  this  country,  as 
unalterably  settled  by  the  Treaty  of  Union,  and  by  the  oath,  '  inviolably 
lo  maintain  and  preserve'  the  same,  required  to  be  taken  by  each 
Sovereign  at  accession,  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  exercise  of  the 
inyal  authority  ; — which  securities  might  well  seem,  and  had  long  been 
I'liiught,  to  place  the  said  liberties,  government,  jurisdiction,  discipline, 
iiglits,  and  privileges  of  this  Church,  beyond  the  reach  of  danger  or 
invasion  ; — these  have  been  of  late  assailed  by  the  very  Court  to  which 
the  Church  was  authorized  to  look  for  assistance  and  protection,  to  an 
extent  that  threatens  their  entire  subversion,  with  all  the  grievous 
calamities  to  this  Church  and  nation  which  would  inevitably  flow 
therefrom ; — did  and  hereb}^  do  solemnly,  and  in  reliance  on  the  grace 
and  power  of  the  Most  High,  resolve  and  agree  on  the  following  Claim, 
Declaration,  and  Protest :    That  is  to  say  : 

''  Whereas  it  is  an  essential  doctrine  of  this  Chm-ch.  and  a  funda- 
mental principle  in  its  constitution,  as  set  forth  in  the  Confession  of 
Faith  thereof,  in  accordance  with  the  Word  and  law  of  the  most  holy 
God,  that  'there  is  no  other  Head  of  the  Church  but  the  Lord  Jesns 
Christ,'  (ch.  xxv.  sec.  6);  and  that,  while  'God,  the  supreme  Lord 
and  King  of  all  the  world,  hath  ordained  civil  magistrates  to  be  under 
him  over  the  people,  for  his  own  glory,  and  the  public  good,  and  to 
this  end  hath  armed  them  with  the  power  of  the  sword,'  (ch.  xxiii. 
sec.  1)  ;  and  while  '  it  is  the  duty  of  the  people  to  pray  for  magis- 
trates, to  honor  their  persons,  to  pay  them  tribute  and  other  dues,  to 
obey  their  lawful  commands,  and  to  be  subject  to  their  authority  for 
conscience'  sake,'  'from  which  ecclesiastical  persons  are  not  exempt- 
ed,' (ch.  xxiii.  sec.  4)  ;  and  w^hile  the  magistrate  hath  authority,  and 
it  is  his  duty,  in  the  exercise  of  that  power  which  alone  is  committed 
to  him — namely,  '  the  power  of  the  sword,'  or  civil  rule,  as  distinct 
from  the  '  power  of  the  keys,'  or  spiritual  authority,  expressly  denied 
to  him,  to  take  order  for  the  preservation  of  purity,  peace,  and  unity 
in  the  Church,  yet  '  the  Lord  Jesus,  as  King  and  Head  of  his  Church, 
hath  therein  appointed  a  government  in  the  hand  of  Church  officers 
distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate,'  (ch.  xxx.  sec.  1)  ;  which  govern- 
ment is  ministerial,  not  lordly,  and  to  be  exercised  in  consonance  with 
the  laws  of  Christ,  and  with  the  liberties  of  his  people  : 

"And  whereas,  accoi'ding  to  the  said  Confession,  and  to  the  other 
Standards  of  the  Church,  and  agreeably  to  the  Word  of  God,  this  gov- 
ernment of  the  Church,  thus  appointed  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  in  the  hand 
of  Church  officers,  distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate  or  supreme  power 
of  the  State,  and  flowing  directly  from  the  Head  of  the  Church  to  the 
office-bearers  thereof,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  civil  magistrate,  compre- 
hends, as  the  objects  of  it,  the  preaching  of  the  Word,  administration 


APPENDIX.  517 


of  the  Sacraments,  correction  of  manners,  the  admission  of  the  office- 
bearers of  the  Church  to  their  offices,  their  suspension  and  deprivation 
therefrom,  the  infliction  and  removal  of  Church  censures,  and,  gener- 
ally, the  whole  '  power  of  the  keys,'  which,  by  the  said  Confession,  is 
declared,  in  conformity  with  Scripture,  to  have  been  '  committed'  (ch. 
XXX.  sec.  2)  to  Church  officers,  and  which,  as  well  as  the  preaching 
of  the  Word  and  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments,  it  is  likewise 
thereby  declared,  that  '  the  civil  magistrate  may  not  assume  to  him- 
self,' (ch.  xxiii.  sec.  3)  : 

"  And  whereas,  this  jurisdiction  and  government,  since  it  regards 
only  spiritual  condition,  rights,  and  privileges,  doth  not  interfere  with 
the  jurisdiction  of  secular  tribunals,  whose  determinations  as  to  all  tem- 
poralities conferred  by  the  State  upon  the  Church,  and  as  to  all  civil 
consequences  attached  by  law  to  the  decisions  of  Church  Courts  in 
matters  spiritual,  this  Church  hath  ever  admitted,  and  doth  admit,  to 
be  exclusive  and  ultimate,  as  she  hath  ever  given  and  inculcated  im- 
plicit obedience  thereto  : 

"And  whereas  the  above-mentioned  essential  doctrine  and  funda- 
mental principle  in  the  constitution  of  the  Church,  and  the  government 
and  exclusive  jurisdiction  flowing  therefrom,  founded  on  God's  Word, 
and  set  forth  in  the  Confession  of  Faith  and  other  standards  of  this 
Church,  have  been,  by  diverse  and  repeated  Acts  of  Parliament,  recog- 
nized, ratified,  and  confirmed  ;   inasmuch  as — 

"  First,  The  said  Confession  itself,  containing  the  doctrine  and  prin- 
ciples above  set  forth,  was  '  ratified  and  established,  and  voted  and 
approven  as  the  public  and  avowed  Confession  of  this  Church,'  by  the 
fifth  Act  of  the  second  .session  of  the  first  Parliament  of  King  William 
and  Queen  Mary,  entituled,  '  Act  ratifying  the  Confession  of  Faith, 
and  Settling  Presbyterian  Chm-ch  Government,'  (1690,  c.  5)  ;  to  which 
Act  the  said  Confession  is  annexed,  and  with  it  incorporated  in  the 
statute  law  of  this  kingdom. 

"  Second,  By  an  Act  passed  in  the  first  Parliament  of  King  James 
VI.,  entituled,  'Of  admission  of  ministers  :  of  laic  patronages,'  (1567, 
c.  7),  it  is  enacted  and  declared,  'That  the  examination  and  admission 
of  ministers  within  this  realm  be  only  in  the  power  of  the  Kirk,  now 
openly  and  publicly  professed  within  the  same :'  and,  while  the  '  pre- 
sentation of  laic  patronages'  was  thereby  '  reserved  to  the  just  and 
ancient  patrons,'  it  was  provided,  that,  if  the  presentee  of  a  patron 
should  be  refused  to  be  admitted  by  the  inferior  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties, it  should  be  lawful  for  the  patron  '  to  appeal  to  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  whole  realm,  by  whom  the  cause  being  decided,  shall 
take  end  as  they  decern  and  declare.' 

"  Third,  By  an  Act  passed  in  the  same  first  Parliament,  and  renewed 
in  the  sixth  Parliament  of  the  said  King  James  VI.,  entituled,  '  Anent 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Kirk,'  (1567,  e.  12,  fol.  edit.)  the  said  Kirk  is 


518  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

declared  to  have  jurisdiction  'in  ihe  preaching  of  the  true  Word  of 
Jesus  Christ,  correction  of  manners,  and  administration  of  the  holy 
sacraments,*  (1579,  c.  69)  ;  and  it  is  further  declared,  '  that  there  be 
no  other  jurisdiction  ecc/esfosizca^  acknowledged  within  this  realm,  other 
than  that  which  is  and  shall  be  within  the  sa^ne  Kirk,  or  that  flows  there- 
from, concerning  the  premises  ;'  which  Act,  and  that  last  before  men- 
tioned, were  ratified  and  approven  by  another  Act  passed  in  the  year 
1581.  entituled,  'Ratification  of  the  liberty  of  the  true  Kirk  of  God 
and  religion,  wuth  confirmation  of  the  laws  and  Acts  made  to  ihat 
effect  of  before,'  (1581,  c.  99) ;  which  other  Act,  and  all  the  separate 
Acts  therein  recited,  were  again  revived,  ratified,  and  confirmed,  by 
an  Act  of  the  twelfth  Parliament  of  the  said  King  James  VI.,  entituled, 
"Ratification  of  the  liberty  of  the  true  Kirk,'  &c.,  (1592,  c.  116); 
which  said  Act  (having  been  repealed  in  1662)  was  revived,  renewed, 
and  confirmed  by  the  before  mentioned  statute  of  King  William  and 
Queen  Mary,  (1690,  c.  5.) 

"  Fourth,  The  said  Act  of  the  twelfth  Parliament  of  King  James  VI., 
ratified  and  approved  the  General  Assemblies,  Provincial  Synods,  Pres- 
byteries, and  Kirk  Sessions  'appointed  by  the  Kirk,'  (1592,  c.  116), 
and  '  the  whole  jurisdiction  and  discipline  of  the  same  Kirk  ;'  cassed 
and  annulled  '  all  and  whatsoever  acts,  laws,  and  statutes,  made  at  any 
time  before  the  day  and  date  thereof,  against  the  liberty  of  the  true 
Kirk,  jurisdiction  and  discipline  thereof,  as  the  same  is  used  and  ex- 
ercised within  this  realm;'  appointed  presentations  to  benefices  to  be 
directed  to  Presbyteries,  '  with  full  power  to  give  collation  thereupon, 
and  to  put  order  to  all  matters  and  causes  ecclesiastical  within  their 
bounds,  according  to  the  discipline  of  the  Kirk,  providing  the  foresaid 
Pi-esbyteries  be  bound  and  astricted  to  receive  and  admit  whatsoever 
qualified  minister,  presented  by  his  Majesty  or  laic  patrons,'  (the  effect 
of  which  proviso  and  of  the  reservation  in  the  Act  of  the  first  Parlia- 
ment of  King  James  VI.,  above  mentioned,  (1567,  c.  7),  is  hereinafter 
more  fully  adverted  to) :  and  farther  declared  that  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Sovereign  and  his  Courts,  as  set  forth  in  a  previous  Act  (1584, 
c.  129),  to  extend  over  all  persons  his  subjects,  and  '  in  all  matters,' 
.should  '  noways  be  prejudicial  nor  derogate  any  thing  to  the  privilege 
that  God  has  given  to  the  spiritual  office-bearers  of  the  Kirk,  concern- 
ing heads  of  religion,  matters  of  heresy,  excommunication,  collation,  or 
deprivation  of  ministers,  or  any  such  like  essential  censures,  grounded 
and  having  warrant  of  the  Word  of  God  :'  by  which  enactment,  dec- 
laration, and  acknowledgment,  the  State  recognized  and  established  as 
a  fundamental  principle  of  the  constitution  of  the  kingdom,  that  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Church  in  these  matters  was  '  given  by  God'  to  the 
office-bearers  thereof,  and  was  exclusive,  and  free  from  coercion  by 
any  tribunals  holding  power  or  authority  from  the  State  or  supreme 
civil  maofistrate. 


APPENDIX.  519 


''Fifth,  The  Parliament  hoklen  by  King  Charles  II.  (1662,  c.  1), 
immediately  on  his  restoration  to  the  th"rone,  while  it  repealed  the 
above-recited  Act  of  the  twelfth  Parliament  of  King  James,  and  other 
relative  Acts,  (1592,  c.  116),  at  the  same  time  acknowledged  the 
supreme  and  exclusive  nature  of  the  jurisdiction  thereby  recognized 
to  be  in  the  Church,  describing  the  said  Acts,  as  Acts  '  by  which  ihe 
sole  and  only  power  and  jurisdiction  within  this  Church  doth  stand  in 
the  Church,  and  in  the  general,  provincial,  and  presbyterial  assemblies 
and  kirk-sessions,'  and  as  Acts  '  which  may  be  interpreted  to  have 
given  any  Church  power,  jurisdiction,  or  government  to  the  office- 
bearers of  the  Church,  their  respective  meetings,  other  than  that  which 
acknowledgeth  a  dependence  upon,  and  suboi-dination  to  the  sovereign 
power  of  the  King,  as  supreme.' 

"  Sixth,  The  aforesaid  Act  of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary,  (1690, 
c.  5),  on  the  narrative  that  their  Majesties  and  the  estates  of  Parlia- 
ment conceived  '  it  to  be  their  bounden  duty,  after  the  great  deliver- 
ance that  God  hath  lately  wrought  for  this  Church  and  kingdom,  in 
the  first  place,  to  settle  and  secure  therein  the  true  Protestant  religion, 
according  to  the  truth  of  God's  Word,  as  it  hath  of  a  long  time  been 
professed  within  this  land  ;  as  also,  the  government  of  Christ's  Church 
within  this  nation,  agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  most  conducive 
to  true  piety  and  godliness,  and  the  establishing  of  peace  and  tranquil- 
lity within  this  realm' — besides  ratifying  and  establishing,  as  aforesaid, 
the  Confession  of  Faith,  did  also  '  establish,  ratify,  and  confirm  the 
Presbyterian  Church  government  and  discipline  ;  that  is  to  say,  the 
government  of  the  Church  by  Kirk- Sessions,  Presbyteries,  Provincial 
Synods,  and  General  Assemblies,  ratified  and  established  by  the  116 
Act  of  James  VI.,  Parliament  12,  anno  1592,  entituled,  "  Ratification 
of  the  liberty  of  the  true  Kirk,"  &c.  (1592,  c.  116),  and  thereafter 
received  by  the  general  consent  of  this  nation,  to  be  the  only  govern- 
ment of  Christ'' s  Church  ivithin  this  kingdom;^  and  revived  and  con- 
firmed the  said  Act  of  King  James  VI. 

"  And  whereas,  not  only  was  the  exclusive  and  ultimate  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Church  Courts,  in  the  government  of  the  Church,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  particular  matters,  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  above  men- 
tioned, recognized,  ratified,  and  confirmed — thus  necessarily  implying 
the  denial  of  power  on  the  part  of  any  secular  tribunal,  holding  its 
authority  from  the  Sovereign,  to  review  the  sentence  of  the  Church 
Courts  in  regard  to  such  matters,  or  coerce  them  in  the  exercise  of 
such  jurisdiction  ; — but  all  such  power,  and  all  claim  on  the  part  of 
the  Sovereign,  to  be  considered  supreme  governor  over  the  subjects  of 
this  kingdom  of  Scotland  in  causes  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual,  as  he  is 
in  causes  civil  and  temporal,  was,  after  a  long-continued  struggle,  final- 
ly and  expressly  repudiated  and  cast  out  of  tie  constitution  of  Scotland, 
as  inconsistent  with  the  Presbyterian  Church  government  established  at 


€L 


520  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

the  Revolution,  and  thereafter  unalterably  secured  by  the  Treaty  of  • 
Union  with  England  ;  by  the  constitution  of  which  latter  kingdom, 
differing  in  this  respect  from  that  of  Scotland,  the  Sovereign  is  recog- 
nized to  be  supreme  governor,  ^  as  well  in  all  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical 
things  and  causes  as  temporal.^      Thus  : 

'■''Firsts  The  General  Assembly  having,  in  the  year  1582,  proceeded 
To  inflict  the  censures  of  the  Church  upon  Robert  Montgomery,  minis- 
ter of  Stirling,  for  seeking  to  force  himself,  under  a  presentation  from 
the  King,  into  the  archbishopric  of  Glasgow,  contrary  to  an  act  of 
the  General  Assembly  discharging  the  office  of  Prelatic  bishop  in  the 
Church,  and  for  appealing  to  the  secular  tribunals  against  the  infliction 
of  Church  censures  by  the  Church  Courts,  and  seeking  to  have  these 
suspended  and  interdicted — and  having  deposed  and  excommunicated 
him,  notwithstanding  of  an  interdict  pronounced  by  the  Privy  Council 
of  Scotland,  the  then  supreme  secular  court  of  the  kingdom — and  hav- 
ing at  the  same  time  declared  it  to  be  part  of  the  subsisting  discipline 
of  the  Church,  that  any  ministers  thereof  who  'should  seek  any  way 
by  the  civil  power  to  exempt  and  withdraw  themselves  from  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Kirk,  or  procure,  obtain,  or  use  any  letters  or  charges, 
&c.,  to  impair,  hurt,  or  stay  the  said  jurisdiction,  discipline,  &c.,  or 
to  make  any  appellation  from  the  General  Assembly  to  stop  the  dis- 
cipline or  order  of  the  ecclesiastical  policy  or  jurisdiction  granted  by 
God's  Word  to  the  office-bearers  within  the  said  Kirk,'  were  liable  to 
the  highest  censures  of  the  Church  ;  although  their  sentence  of  ex- 
communication was  declared  by  one  of  the  Acts  of  Parliament  of  the 
year  1584,  commonly  called  the  'Black  Acts,'  to  be  void,  yet  ulti- 
mately the  King  and  Privy  Council  abandoned  their  interference. 
Montgomery  submitted  to  the  Church  Courts,  and  the  statute  of  the 
twelfth  Parliament  of  King  James  VI.,  already  mentioned,  (1592,  c. 
116),  cassed  and  annulled  'all  and  whatsoever  acts,  laws,  and  statutes 
made  at  any  time  before  the  day  and  date  thereof,  against  the  liberty 
of  the  true  Kirk,  jurisdiction  and  discipline  thereof,  as  the  same  is  used 
and  exercised  within  this  realm;''  since  which  enactment,  no  similar 
interference  with  the  discipline  and  censures  of  the  Church  was  ever 
attempted  till  the  year  1841. 

"  Second^  It  having  been  declared  by  another  of  the  '  Black  Acts' 
aforesaid,  (1584,  c.  129),  entituled,  'An  Act  confirming  the  King's 
Majesty's  royal  power  over  all  the  estates  and  subjects  within  this 
realm,'  that  '  his  highness,  his  heirs  and  successors,  by  themselves  and 
iheir  councils,  are,  and  in  time  to  come  shall  be,  judges  competent  to 
all  persons  his  Highness'  subjects,  of  whatsoever  estate,  degree,  func- 
tion, or  condition  that  ever  they  be  of,  spiritual  or  temporal,  in  all 
matters  wherein  they  or  any  of  them  shall  be  apprehended,  summoned, 
i-r  charged  to  answer  to  such  things  as  shall  be  inquired  of  them  by 
uur  .sovereign  Lord  and  his  council,'  it  was,  by  the  .said  before-men- 


APPENDIX.  521 


tioned  Act  of  the  twelfth  Parliament  of  King  James  VI.  (1592,  c.  116), 
declared  that  the  said  Act  last  above  mentioned  'shall  noways  be 
prejudicial,  nor  derogate  any  thing  to  the  privilege  that  God  has  given 
♦o  the  spiritual  office-bearers  of  the  Kirk,  concerning  heads  of  religion, 
matters  of  heresy,  excommunication,  collation  or  deprivation  of  minis- 
ters, or  any  such  like  essential  censures,  specially  grounded  and  having 
warrant  of  the  Word  of  God.' 

"  Thirds  It  having  been  enacted,  on  the  establishment  of  Prelacy  in 
1612,  (1612,  c.  1),  that  every  minister,  at  his  admission,  should  swear 
obedience  to  the  sovereign  as  '  the  only  lawful  supreme  governor  of 
this  realm,  as  well  in  matters  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  as  in  things- 
temporal,'  the  enactment  to  this  effect  was  repealed  on  the  restoration 
of  Presbyterian  Church  government,  (1640,  c.  7.) 

'"''Fourth^  A  like  acknowledgment,  that  the  Sovereign  was  'the  only 
supreme  governor  of  this  kingdom  over  all  persons  and  in  all  causes,' 
(1661,  c.  11),  having  been,  on  the  second  establishment  of  Prelacy 
consequent  on  the  restoration  of  King  Charles  II.,  required  as  part  of 
the  ordinary  oath  of  allegiance,  and  having  been  also  inserted  into  the 
'Test  Oath,'  (1681,  c.  6),*  .so  tyrannically  attempted  to  be  forced  on 
the  subjects  of  this  realm  during  the  reigns  of  Charles  II.  and  James 
IL,  and  the  same  doctrine  of  the  King's  supremacy  in  all  causes,  spir- 
itual and  ecclesiastical,  as  well  as  temporal  and  civil,  having  farther 
been  separately  and  specially  declared  by  the  first  Act  of  the  second 
Parliament  of  the  said  King  Charles  II.,  (1669,  c.  1),  entituled,  'Act 
asserting  his  Majesty's  supremacy  over  all  persons  and  in  all  causes 
ecclesiastical,'  whereby  it  was  'enacted,  asserted,  and  declared,  that 
his  Majesty  hath  the  supreme  authority  and  supremacy  over  all  per- 
sons, and  in  all  causes  ecclesiastical,  within  this  kingdom,'  (Estates, 
1689,  c.  18),— the  Estates  of  this  kingdom,  at  the  era  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, did  set  forth,  as  the  second  article  of  the  'Grievances,'  of  which 
they  demanded  redress  under  their  'Claim  of  Right,'  'That  the  first 
Act  of  Parliament  1669  is  inconsistent  with  the  establishment  of  Church 
government  now  desired,  and  ought  to  be  abrogated.' 

''Fifth,  in  compliance  with  this  claim,  an  Act  was  immediately 
thereafter  passed,  (1690,  c.  1),  of  which  the  tenor  follows: — 'Our 
Sovereign  Lord  and  Lady  the  King  and  Queen's  Majesties,  taking 
into  their  consideration  that,  by  the  second  article  of  the  Grievances 
presented  to  their  Majesties  by  the  Estates  of  this  kingdom,  it  is  de- 
clared, that  the  first  Act  of  the  second  Parliament  of  King  Charles  the 
Second,  entituled,  'Act  asserting  his  Majesty's  supremacy  over  all 
persons  and  in  all  causes  eccfesiastical,'  is  inconsistent  with  the 
establishment  of  the  Church  government  now  desired,  and  ought  to  be 
abrogated  :  Therefore  their  majesties,  with  advice  and  consent  of  the 
estates  of  Parliament,  do  hereby  abrogate,  rescind,  and  annul  the  fore- 
said Act.  and  declare  the  same,  in  the  whole  heads,  articles,  and  clauses 


522  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

thereof,  to  be  of  no  force  or  effect  in  all  time  coming.'  In  accordance 
also  therewith,  the  oath  of  allegiance  above  mentioned,  requiring  an 
acknowledgment  of  the  King's  sovereignty  'in  all  causes,'  (1689,  c.  2), 
was  done  away,  and  that  substituted  which  is  now  in  use,  simply  re- 
quiring a  promise  to  be  '  faithful,  and  bear  true  allegiance'  to  the  Sov- 
ereign; and  all  preceding  laws  and  Acts  of  Parliament  were  rescinded, 
'  in  so  far  as  they  impose  any  other  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy, 
declarations  and  tests,  excepting  the  oath  de  fideli.'  By  the  which 
enactments,  any  claim  on  the  part  of  the  Sovereigns  of  Scotland  to  be 
supreme  rulers  in  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  as  well  as  in  temporal 
and  civil  causes,  or  to  possess  any  power,  by  themselves  or  their  judges 
holding  commission  from  them,  to  exercise  jurisdiction  in  matters  or 
causes  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  was  repudiated  and  excluded  from 
the  constitution,  as  inconsistent  with  the  Presbyterian  Church  govern- 
ment then  established,  and  secured  under  the  statutes  then  and  sub- 
sequently passed,  'to  continue,  without  any  alteration,  to  the  people  of 
this  land,  in  all  succeeding  generations,'  (1766,  c.  6.) 

"  And  whereas,  diverse  civil  rights  and  privileges  were,  by  various 
statutes  of  the  Parliament  of  Scotland,  prior  to  the  Union  with  En- 
gland, secured  to  this  Church,  and  certain  civil  consequences  attached 
to  the  sentences  of  the  Courts  thereof,  which  were  farther  directed  to 
be  aided  and  made  effectual  by  all  magistrates,  judges,  and  officers  of 
the  law  ;  and  in  particular  : 

"  It  was,  by  an  Act  of  the  tw^elfth  Parliament  of  King  James  VI. 
(1592,  c.  117),  enacted,  'That  all  and  whatsoever  sentences  of  depri- 
vation, either  pronounced  already,  or  that  happens  to  be  pronounced 
hereafter  by  the  Presbytery,  Synodal  or  General  Assemblies,  against 
any  parson  or  vicar  within  their  jurisdiction,  provided  since  his  High- 
ness' coronation,  is,  and  shall  be  repute  in  all  judgments,  a  just  cause 
to  seclude  the  person  before  provided,  and  then  deprived,  from  all 
profits,  commodities,  rents,  and  duties  of  the  said  parsonage  and  vicar- 
age, or  benefice  of  cure  ;  and  that  either  by  way  of  action,  exception, 
or  reply :  and  that  the  said  sentence  of  deprivation  shall  be  a  sufficient 
cause  to  make  the  said  benefice  to  vaike  thereby  :' 

"  As  also,  by  the  fifth  Act  of  the  first  Parliament  of  King  William 
and  Queen  Mary,  (1690.  c.  5),  it  was  enacted,  'that  whatsoever  min- 
ister, being  convened  before  the  said  general  meeting,  and  represent- 
atives of  the  Presbyterian  ministers  or  elders,  or  the  visitors  to  be 
appointed  by  them,  shall  either  prove  contumacious  for  not  appearing, 
or  be  found  guilty,  and  shall  be  therefore  censured,  whether  by  sus- 
pension or  deposition,  they  shall,  ipso  facto^  be  suspended  from,  or 
deprived  of  their  stipends  and  benefices  :' 

"  As  also,  by  an  Act  passed  in  the  fourth  session  of  the  first  Parlia- 
ment of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary,  (1693.  c.  22),  entituled  an 
'Act  for  settling  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the  Church,'  it  was  provided, 


APPENDIX.  523 


that  no  minister  should  be  admitted,  unless  he  owned  the  Presb3'terian 
Church  government,  as  settled  by  the  last-recited  Act,  '  to  be  the  only 
government  of  this  Church  ;'  '  and  that  he  will  submit  thereto,  and 
concur  therewith,  and  never  endeavor,  directly  or  indirectly,  the  pre- 
judice or  subversion  thereof;  and  it  was  statute  or  ordained,  'that  the 
lords  of  their  Majesties'  Privy  Council,  and  all  other  magistrates,  judges, 
and  officers  of  justice,  give  all  due  assistance  for  making  the  sentences 
and  censures  of  the  Church,  and  judicatories  thereof,  to  be  obeyed,  or 
otherwise  effectual  as  accords  :' 

"  As  also,  by  an  Act  passed  in  the  fifth  session  of  the  foi-esaid  Par- 
liament, (1695,  c.  22),  entituled  an  'Act  against  intruding  into  churches 
without  a  legal  call  and  admission  thereto,'  on  the  narrative,  'that  min- 
isters and  preachers,  their  intruding  themselves  into  vacant  churches, 
possessing  of  manses  and  benefices,  and  exercising  any  part  of  the 
ministerial  function  in  parishes,  without  a  legal  call  and  admission  to 
the  said  churches,  is  an  high  contempt  of  the  law,  and  of  a  dangerous 
consequence,  tending  to  perpetual  schism ;'  such  intrusion,  without  an 
orderly  call  from  the  heritors  and  elders — the  right  of  presentation  by 
patrons  being  at  this  time  abolished — and  'legal  admission  from  the 
Presbytery,'  was  prohibited  under  certain  penalties  ;  and  the  lords  of 
the  Privy  Council  were  recommended  to  remove  all  who  had  so  in- 
truded, and  '  to  take  some  effectual  course  for  stopping  and  hindering 
those  ministers  who  are,  or  shall  be  hereafter  deposed  by  the  judica- 
tories of  the  present  Established  Church,  from  preaching  or  exercising 
any  act  of  their  ministerial  function,  which'  (the  said  statute  declares) 
'  they  can  not  do  after  they  ai'e  deposed,  without  a  high  contempt  of 
the  authority  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  establish- 
ing the  same.' 

"  And  whereas,  at  the  Union  between  the  two  kingdoms,  the  Par- 
liament of  Scotland,  being  determined  that  the  '  true  Protestant  relig- 
ion,' as  then  professed,  '  with  the  worship,  discipline,  and  government 
of  this  Church,  should  be  effectually  and  unalterably  secured,'  did,  in 
their  Act  appointing  commissioners  to  treat  with  commissioners  from 
the  Parliament  of  England,  (1705,  c.  4),  as  to  an  union  of  the  king- 
doms, provide  '  That  the  said  commissioners  shall  not  treat  of  or  con- 
cerning any  alteration  of  the  worship,  discipline,  and  government  of 
the  Church  of  this  kingdom,  as  now  by  law  established  ;'  and  did,  by 
another  Act,  commonly  called  the  Act  of  Security,  (1706,  c.  6),  and 
entituled,  '  Act  for  securing  the  Protestant  religion  and  Presbyterian 
Church  government,'  'establish  and  confirm  the  said  true  Protestant 
religion,  and  the  worship,  discipline,  and  government  of  this  Church, 
to  continue  without  any  altei-ation  to  the  people  of  this  land  in  all  suc- 
ceeding generations;'  and  did  '  forever  confirm  the  fifth  Act  of  the  first 
Parliament  of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary,'  (1690,  c.  5),  entituled, 
'Act  ratifying  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  settling  Presbyterian  Church 


524  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

government,  and  the  whole  other  Arts  of  Parliament  relating  thereto  ; 
and  did  'expressly  provide  and  declare,  That  the  foresaid  true  Prot- 
estant religion,  contained  in  the  above-mentioned  Confession  of  Faith, 
with  the  form  and  purity  of  worship  presently  in  use  within  this  Church, 
and  its  Presbyterian  Church  government  and  discipline — that  is  to  say, 
the  government  of  the  Church  by  Kirk-Sessions,  Presbyteries,  Provin- 
cial Synods,  and  General  Assemblies,  all  established  by  the  foresaid 
Acts  of  Parliament,  pursuant  to  the  Claim  of  Right,  shall  remain  and 
continue  unalterable  :  and  that  the  said  Presbyterian  government  shall 
be  the  only  government  of  the  Church  within  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  :' 
And  farther,  *  for  the  greater  security  of  the  same,'  did.  inter  alia^  enact, 
'  That,  after  the  decease  of  her  present  Majesty,  the  sovereign  suc- 
ceeding to  her  in  the  I'oyal  government  of  the  kingdom  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, shall,  in  all  time  coming,  at  his  or  her  accession  to  the  crown, 
swear  and  subscribe,  That  they  shall  inviolably  maintain  and  preserve 
the  foresaid  settlement  of  the  true  Protestant  religion,  with  the  gov- 
ernment, worship,  discipline,  rights,  and  privileges  of  this  Church,  as 
above  established  by  the  laws  of  this  kingdom,  in  prosecution  of  the 
Claim  of  Right ;'  which  said  Act  of  Security,  '  with  the  establishment 
therein  contained,'  it  was  specially  thereby  enacted,  '  should  be  held 
and  observed  in  all  time  coming  as  a  fundamental  and  essential  con- 
dition of  any  treaty  or  union  to  be  concluded  betwixt  the  two  king- 
doms, without  any  alteration  thereof  or  derogation  thereto^  in  anij  sort, 
forever:'  It  being  farther  thereby  provided,  that  'the  said  Act  and 
settlement  therein  contained  shall  be  insert  and  repeated  in  any  Act 
of  Parliament  that  shall  pass,  for  agreeing  and  concluding  the  foresaid 
treaty  of  union  betwixt  the  two  kingdoms  ;  and  that  the  same  shall  be 
therein  expressly  declared  to  be  a  fundamental  and  essential  condition 
of  the  said  treaty  of  union  in  all  time  coming.'  In  terms  of  which 
enactment,  this  Act  of  Security  was  inserted  in  the  Treaty  of  Union 
between  the  two  kingdoms,  as  a  fundamental  condition  thereof,  and 
was  also  inserted  in  the  Act  (1706,  c  7)  of  the  Parliament  of  Scot- 
land ratifying  and  approving  of  the  said  Treaty,  and  likewise  in  the 
corresponding  Act  of  the  Parliament  of  England,  entituled,  '  An  Act 
(5  Anne,  c.  8)  for  a  Union  of  the  two  Kingdoms  of  England  and  Scot- 
land :' 

"  And  whereas,  at  the  date  of  the  said  Treaty  of  Union,  the  right 
of  patrons  to  present  to  churches  stood  abolished  by  statute,  after  the 
following  manner — viz.,  By  the  Act  of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary, 
(1690,  c.  5),  herein  before  mentioned,  the  Act  of  James  VI.  (1592,  c. 
116),  also  herein  before  mentioned,  then  standing  totally  repealed,  was 
only  revived,  subject  to  the  express  exception  of  '  that  part  of  it  relat- 
ing to  patronages,'  which  consequently  remained  repealed  and  unre- 
stored,  and  'which,'  the  Act  1690,  c.  5,  farther  bore,  'is  hereafter  to 
be  taken  into  consideration.'     The  part  of  the  said  Act  thus  left  re- 


APPENDIX.  525 


pealed  and  unrevived,  was  the  provision,  that  Presbyteries  '  be  bound 
and  astricted  to  receive  whatsoever  qualified  minister  presented  by  his 
Majesty  or  laic  patrons' — a  provision  which,  while  it  subsisted,  was 
held  to  leave  the  Church  free  to  proceed  in  the  collation  of  ministers, 
*  according  to  the  discipline  of  the  Kirk  ;'  and  non-compliance  with 
which  implied  only  a  forfeiture  of  the  fruits  of  the  particular  benefice, 
which  it  did  by  virtue  of  the  immediately  succeeding  statute,  1592,  c. 
117,  whereby  it  was  enacted,  that,  'in  case  the  Presbytery  refuses  to 
admit  any  qualified  minister  presented  to  them  by  the  patron,  it  shall 
be  lawful  to  the  patron  to  retain  the  whole  fruits  of  the  benefice  in  his 
own  hands.'  This  subject  having  accordingly  been  thereafter  taken 
into  consideration  in  the  same  session  of  Parliament,  was  definitively 
settled  by  an  Act,  (1690,  c.  23),  entituled,  'Act  concerning  Patron- 
ages,' whereby  the  right  of  presentation  by  patrons  was  'annulled  and 
made  void,'  and  a  right  was  vested  in  the  heritors  and  elders  of  the 
respective  parishes  '  to  name  and  propose  the  person  to  the  whole  con- 
gregation, to  be  approven  or  disapproven  by  them,'  the  disapprovers 
giving  in  their  reasons  '  to  the  effect  the  affair  may  be  cognosced  upon 
by  the  Presbytery  of  the  bounds,  at  whose  judgment,  and  by  whose 
determination'  (as  is  declared  by  the  said  Act),  ''the  calling  and  entry 
of  a  particular  minister  is  to  be  ordered  and  concluded  :' 

"  And  whereas  the  said  Act  last  mentioned  formed  part  of  the  set- 
tlement of  the  Presbyterian  Church  government  efTected  at  the  Revo- 
lution, and  was  one  of  the  '  Acts  relating  thereto,'  and  to  the  statute 
1690,  c.  5,  specially  confirmed  and  secured  by  the  Act  of  Security  and 
Treaty  of  Union  ;  yet,  notwithstanding  thereof,  and  of  the  said  Treaty, 
the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  by  an  Act  passed  in  the  10th  of  Queen 
Anne,  (10  Anne,  c.  12),  repealed  the  said  Act,  '  in  so  far  as  relates  to 
the  presentation  of  ministei's  by  heritors  and  others  therein  mentioned, 
and  i-estored  to  patrons  the  right  of  presentation,  and  enacted  that 
Presbyteries  should  be  'obliged  to  receive  and  admit  in  the  same 
manner,  such  qualified  person  or  persons,  minister  or  ministers,  as 
shall  be  presented  by  the  respective  patrons,  as  the  persons  or  minis- 
ters presented  before  the  making  of  this  Act  ought  to  have  been 
admitted  :' 

"  And  whereas,  while  this  Church  protested  against  the  passing  of 
the  above-mentioned  Act  of  Queen  Anne,  as  '  contrary  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Church,  so  well  secured  by  the  late  Treaty  of  Union,  and 
solemnly  ratified  by  Acts  of  Parliament  in  both  kingdoms,'  and  for 
more  than  seventy  years  thereafter  uninterruptedly  sought  for  its 
repeal,  she  at  the  same  time  maintained,  and  practically  exerci.«ed, 
without  question  or  challenge  from  any  quarter,  the  jurisdiction  of  her 
Courts  to  determine  ultimately  and  exckisively,  under  what  circum- 
stances they  would  admit  candidates  into  the  office  of  the  holy  min- 
istry,  or  conS'titute    the    pastoral   relationship  between   minister   and 


526  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

people,  and,  generally,  '  to  order  and  conclude  the  entry  of  particular 
ministers  :' 

"  And  whereas,  in  particular,  this  Church  required,  as  necessary  to 
the  admission  of  a  minister  to  the  charge  of  souls,  that  he  should  have 
received  a  call  from  the  people  over  whom  he  was  to  be  appointed, 
and  did  not  authorize  or  permit  any  one  so  to  be  admitted  till  such  call 
had  been  sustained  by  the  Church  Courts,  and  did,  before  and  subse- 
quent to  the  passing  of  the  said  Act  of  Queen  Anne,  declare  it  to  be 
a  fundamental  principle  of  the  Church,  as  set  forth  in  her  authorized 
standards,  and  particularly  in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  (ch.  iii. 
sec.  5),  repeated  by  Act  of  Assembly  in  1638,  that  no  pastor  be  in- 
truded upon  any  congregation  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people  : 

"  And  whereas,  in  especial,  this  fundamental  principle  was,  by  the 
14th  Act  of  the  General  Assembly  1736,  (c.  14),  re-declared,  and 
directed  to  be  attended  to  in  the  settlement  of  vacant  parishes,  but 
having  been,  after  some  time,  disregarded  in  the  administration  of  the 
Church,  it  was  once  more  re-declared  by  the  General  Assembly,  1834, 
(c.  9),  who  established  certain  specific  provisions  and  regulations  for 
carrying  it  into  effect  in  time  to  come  : 

"  And  whereas,  by  a  judgment  pronounced  by  the  House  of  Lords, 
in  1839,^  it  was,  for  the  first  time,  declared  to  be  illegal  to  refuse  to 
take  on  trial,  and  to  reject  the  presentee  of  a  patron  (although  a  lay- 
man, and  merely  a  candidate  for  admission  to  the  office  of  the  minis- 
try), in  consideration  of  this  fundamental  principle  of  the  Church,  and 
in  respect  of  the  dissent  of  the  congregation ;  to  the  authority  of  which 
judgment,  so  far  as  disposing  of  civil  interests,  this  Church  implicitly 
bowed,  by  at  once  abandoning  all  claim  to  the  jus  devolutum — to  the 
benefice,  for  any  pastor  to  be  settled  by  her — and  to  all  other  civil 
right  or  privilege  which  might  otherwise  have  been  competent  to  the 
Church  or  her  Courts  ;  and  anxiously  desirous,  at  the  same  time,  of 
avoiding  collision  with  the  Civil  Courts,  she  so  far  suspended  the 
operation  of  the  above-mentioned  Act  of  Assembly,  as  to  direct  all 
oases,  in  which  dissents  should  be  lodged  by  a  majority  of  the  congre- 
gation, to  be  reported  to  the  General  Assembly,  in  the  hope  that  a 
way  might  be  opened  up  to  her  for  reconciling  with  the  civil  rights 
declared  by  the  House  of  Lords,  adherence  to  the  above-mentioned 
fundamental  principle,  which  she  could  not  violate  or  abandon,  by 
admitting  to  the  holy  office  of  the  ministry  a  party  not  having,  in  her 
conscientious  judgment,  a  legitimate  call  thereto,  or  by  intruding  a 
pastor  on  a  reclaiming  congregation  contrary  to  their  will  ;  and  far- 
ther, addressed  herself  to  the  Government  and  the  Legislature  for  such 
an  alteration  of  the  law  (as  for  the  first  time  now  interpreted),  touch- 
ing the  temporalities  belonging  to  the  Church  (which  alone  she  held 
the  decision  of  the  House  of  Lords  to  be  capable  of  affecting  or  reg- 
1  Auchterarder  Case,  1839. 


APPENDIX.  527 


ulating),  as  might  prevent  a  separation  between  the  cure  of  souls  and 
the  benefice  thereto  attached  : 

"And  whereas,  although  during  the  century  which  elapsed  after  the 
passing  of  the  said  Act  of  Queen  Anne,  Presbyteries  repeatedly  rejected 
the  presentees  of  patrons  on  grounds  undoubtedly  ultra  vires  of  the 
Presbyteries,  as  having  reference  to  the  title  of  the  patron  or  the 
validity  of  competing  presentations,  and  which  were  held  by  the  Court 
of  Session  to  be  contrary  to  law^,  and  admitted  others  to  the  pastoral 
office  in  the  parishes  presented  to,  who  had  no  presentation  or  legal 
title  to  the  benefice,  the  said  Court,  even  in  such  cases,  never  attempted 
or  pretended  to  direct  or  coerce  the  Church  Courts,  in  the  exercise  of 
their  functions  in  regard  to  the  collation  of  ministers,  or  other  matters 
acknowledged  by  the  State  to  have  been  conferred  on  the  Church,  not 
by  the  State,  but  by  God  himself.  On  the  contrary,  they  limited  their 
decrees  to  the  regulation  and  disposal  of  the  temporalities  which  were 
derived  from  the  State,  and  which,  as  the  proper  subjects  of  '  actions 
civil,'  were  within  the  province  assigned  to  the  Court  of  Session,  by 
the  Constitution  refusing  to  interfere  with  the  peculiar  functions  and 
exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the  Courts  of  the  Church.     Thus — 

"  In  the  case  of  Auchtermuchty,^  where  the  Presbytery  had  wrono-. 
fully  admitted  another  than  the  patron's  presentee,  the' Court  found, 
'  That  the  right  to  a  stipend  is  a  civil  right ;  and  therefore  that  the  Court 
have  power  to  cognosce  and  determine  upon  the  legality  of  the  admis- 
sion of  ministers  in  hunc  effectum,  whether  the  person"  admitted  shall 
have  right  to  the  stipend  or  not ;  and  simply  decided,  that  the  patron 
was  entitled  to  retain  the  stipend  in  his  own  hands. 

"  So  also,  the  same  course  was  followed  in  the  cases  of  Culross, 
Lanark,  and  Forbes  f  in  reference  to  one  of  which  (that  of  Lanark), 
the  Government  of  the  country,  on  behalf  of  the  Crown,  in  which  the 
patronage  was  vested,  recognized  the  retention  of  stipend  by  the 
patron,  as  the  only  competent  remedy  for  a  wrongful  refusal  to  admit 
his  presentee ;  the  Secretary  of  State  having,  in  a  letter  to  the  Lord 
Advocate  of  Scotland  (January  17,  1752),  signified  the  pleasure  of 
his  Majesty,  'directing  and  ordering  his  lordship  to  do  every  thing 
necessary  and  competent  by  law,  for  asserting  and  taking  benefit  in 
the  present  case  of  the  said  right  and  privilege  of  patrons  by  the  law 
of  Scotland  to  retain  the  fruits  of  the  benefice  in  their  own  hands  till 
their  presentee  be  admitted.' 

"  So  farther,  in  the  before  mentioned  case  of  Culross,^  the  Court  re- 
fused, '  as  incompetent,'  a  bill  of  advocation  presented  to  them  by  the 
patron,  for  the  purpose  of  staying  the  admission  by  the  Presbytery  of 
another  than  his  presentee. 

1  MoncriefFt;.  Maxton,  Feb.  15,  1735. 

2  Cochrane  v.  Stoddart,  June  26, 1751.   Dick  v.  Carmichael,  Marcli  2,  1753.  Forbes 
V.  M'William,  February,  1762.  3  Cochrane,  November  19,  1748. 


528  MEMOIRS  OF  DU.  CHALMERS. 

"  So  likewise,  in  the  case  of  Dunse,^  the  Court  would  not  interfere 
in  regard  to  a  conclusion  to  prohibit  the  Presb3-ter3^  '  to  moderate  in  a 
call  at  large,  or  settle  any  other  man,'  because  'that  was  interfering 
with  the  power  of  ordination,  or  internal  policy  of  the  Church,  with  which 
the  Lords  thought  they  had  nothing  to  do.' 

'•  And  so,  in  the  same  manner,  in  the  case  of  Unst,"  where  the  party 
concluded  to  have  the  Presbytery  ordained  to  proceed  to  the  presentee's 
settlement,  as  well  as  to  have  the  validity  of  the  presentation  and  the 
right  to  the  stipend  declared,  the  Court  limited  their  decree  to  the 
civil  matters  of  the  presentation  and  stipend  : 

'■  And  whereas,  pending  the  efforts  of  the  Church  to  accomplish  the 
desired  alteration  of  the  law,  the  Court  of  Session — a  tribunal  instituted 
by  special  Act  of  Parliament  for  the  specific  and  limited  purpose  of 
'doing  and  administration  of  justice  in  all  civil  aclions,'  (1537,  c.  36,) 
with  judges  appointed  simply  '  to  sit  and  decide  upon  all  actions  civil,^ 
(1632,  c.  1,) — not  confining  themselves  to  the  determination  of  'civil 
actions — to  the  withholding  of  civil  consequences  from  sentences  of  the 
Church  (Courts,  which,  in  their  judgment,  were  not  warranted  by  the 
statutes  recognizing  the  jurisdiction  of  these  Courts — to  the  enforcing 
of  the  provision  of  the  Act  1592,  c.  117,  for  retention  of  the  fruits  of 
the  benefice  in  case  of  wrongful  refusal  to  admit  a  presentee,  or  the 
giving  of  other  civil  redress  for  any  civil  injury  held  by  them  to  have 
been  wrongfully  sustained  in  consequence  thereof — have,  in  numerous 
and  repeated  instances,  stepped  beyond  the  province  allotted  to  them 
by  the  Constitution,  and  within  which  alone  their  decisions  can  be  held 
to  declare  the  law,  or  to  have  the  force  of  law,  deciding  not  only  '  ac- 
tions civil,'  but  '  causes  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical' — and  that,  too,  even 
where  these  had  no  connection  with  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  patron- 
age— and  have  invaded  the  jurisdiction,  and  encroached  upon  the 
spiritual  privileges  of  the  Courts  of  this  Church,  in  violation  of  the 
constitution  of  the  country — in  defiance  of  the  statutes  above  mention- 
ed, and  in  contempt  of  the  laws  of  this  kingdom  :   as  for  instance  — 

"  By  interdicting  Presbyteries  of  the  Church  ffom  admitting  to  a 
pastoral  charge,''  when  about  to  be  done  irrespective  of  the  civil  bene- 
fice attached  thereto,  or  even  where  There  was  no  benefice — no  right 
of  patronage — no  stipend — no  manse  or  glebe,  and  no  place  of  worship, 
or  any  patrimonial  right  connected  therewith.'* 

"By  issuing  a  decree,^  requiring  and  ordaining  a  Church  Court  to 
take  on  trial  and  admit  to  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  in  a  particu- 
lar charge,  a  probationer  or  unordained  candidate  for  the  ministry,  and  to 
intrude  him  also  on  the  congregation,  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  people ; 
both  in  this,  and  in  the  cases  first  mentioned,  invading  the  Church's 

1  Hay  V.  Presbytery  of  Dunse,  Fetiruary  26,  1749. 

2  Lord  Dtmdas  v.  Presbytery  of  Shetland,  May  15,  1795. 

3  1st  hethendy  Case.  *  Stewarton  Case.  s  Marnocli  Case. 


APPENDIX.  529 


exclusive  jurisdiction  in  the  admission  of  ministers,  the  preaching  of  the 
Word,  and  administration  of  Sacraments — recognized  by  statute  to  have 
been  '  given  by  God,  directly  to  the  Church,  and  to  be  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  secular  jurisdiction. 

"  By  prohibiting  the  communicants'  of  the  Church  from  intimating 
their  dissent  from  a  call  proposed  to  be  given  to  a  candidate  for  the 
ministry  to  become  their  pastor. 

"  By  granting  edict  against  the  establishment  of  additional  ministers 
to  meet  the  wants  of  an  increasing  population,^  as  uninterruptedly 
practiced  from  the  Reformation  to  this  day  :  against  constituting  a  new 
kirk-session  in  a  parish,  to  exercise  discipline ;  and  against  innovating 
on  its  existing  state,  '  as  regards  pastoral  superintendence,  its  kirk-ses- 
sion, and  jurisdiction  and  discipline  thereto  belonging.' 

"  By  interdicting  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  administration  of 
ordinances,"^  throughout  a  whole  district,  by  any  minister  of  the  Church 
under  authority  of  the  Church  Courts  ;  thus  assuming  to  themselves 
the  regulation  of  the  '  preaching  of  the  Word'  and  '  administration 
of  the  Sacraments,'  and  at  the  same  time  invading  the  privilege,  com- 
mon to  all  the  subjects  of  the  reahn,  of  having  freedom  to  worship 
God  according  to  their  consciences,  and  under  the  guidance  of  the  min- 
isters of  the  communion  to  which  they  belong. 

"  By  holding  the  members  of  inferior  Church  judicatories  liable  in 
damages'*  for  reusing  to  break  their  ordination  vows  and  oaths  (sworn 
by  them,  in  compliance  with  the  requirements  of  the  statutes  of  the 
realm,  and,  in  particular,  of  the  Act  of  Security  embodied  in  the  Treaty 
of  Union),  by  disobeying  and  setting  at  defiance  the  sentences,  in  mat- 
ters spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  of  their  superior  Church  judicatories, 
to  which,  by  the  constitution  of  the  Church  and  country,  they  are,  in 
such  matters,  subordinate  and  subject,  and  which,  by  their  said  vows 
and  oaths,  they  stand  pledged  to  obey. 

"By  interdicting  the  execution  of  the  sentence  of  a  Church  judica- 
tory, prohibiting  a  minister  from  preaching  or  administering  ordinances 
within  a  particular  parish,^  pending  the  discussion  o[  a  cause  in  the 
Church  Courts  as  to  the  validity  of  his  settlement  therein. 

"  By  interdicting  the  General  Assembly  and  inferior  Church  judica- 
tories from  inflicting  Church  censures  ;  as  in  one  case,  where  inter- 
dict was  granted  against  the  pronouncing  of  sentence  of  deposition 
upon  a  minister  found  guilty  of  theft,  by  a  judgment  acquiesced  in  by 
himself  j^  in  another,  where  a  Presbytery  was  interdicted  from  pro- 
ceeding in  the  trial  of  a  minister  accused  of  fraud  and  svi^indling  ; ''  and 
in  a  third,  where  a  Presbytery  was  interdicted  from  proceeding  with  a 

1  Daviot  Case.  2  Stewarton  Case.  ^  Strathbogie  Cases. 

*  2d  Auchterarder  Case.  s  Culsalmond  Case.  ^  Cambusnethan  Case. 

'  Stranraer  Case. 
VOL.   IV. — Z 


530  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 


libel  against  a  licentiate  for  drunkenness,  obscenity,  and  profane  swear- 

"  By  suspending  Church  censures,^  inflicted  by  the  Church  judica- 
toi'ies  in  the  exercise  of  discipline  (which,  by  special  statute,  all  'judges 
and  officers  of  justice'  are  ordered  '  to  give  due  assistance'  for  making 
'  to  be  obeyed,  or  otherwise  effectuaF),  and  so  reponing  ministers  sus- 
pended from  their  office,  to  the  power  of  preaching  and  administering 
ordinances  ;  thus  assuming  to  themselves  the  '  power  of  the  keys.' 

"  By  interdicting  the  execution  of  a  sentence  of  deposition  from  the 
office  of  the  holy  ministry,  pronounced  by  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Church  j-^  thereby  also  usurping  the  '  power  of  the  keys,'  and  sup- 
porting deposed  ministers  in  the  exercise  of  ministerial  functions  ;  which 
is  declared  by  special  statute  to  be  a  '  high  contempt  of  the  authority 
of  the  Church,  and  of  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  establishing  the  same.' 

"  By  assuming  to  judge  of  the  right  of  individuals  elected  members 
of  the  General  Assembly  to  sit  therein,"*  and  interdicting  them  from 
taking  their  seats  ;  thus  interfering  with  the  constitution  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Church,  and  violating  her  freedom  in  the  holding  of  Gen- 
eral Assemblies,  secured  to  her  by  statute. 

"  By,  in  the  greater  number  of  instances  above  referred  to,  requir- 
ing the  inferior  judicatories  of  the  Church  to  disobey  the  sentences,  in 
matters  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  of  the  superior  judicatories,  to 
which,  by  the  constitution  in  Church  and  State,  they  are  subordinate 
and  subject,  and  which,  in  compliance  with  the  provisions  of  the  stat- 
utes of  the  realm,  their  members  have  solemnly  sworn  to  obey;  thus 
subverting  '  the  government  of  the  Church  by  Kirk-sessions,  Presby- 
teries, Provincial  Synods,  and  General  Assemblies,'  settled  by  statute 
and  the  Treaty  of  Union,  as  '  the  only  government  of  the  Church  w^ithin 
the  kingdom  of  Scotland.' 

"  By  all  which  acts,  the  said  Court  of  Session,  apparently  not  ad- 
verting to  the  oath  taken  by  the  Sovereign,  from  whom  they  hold  their 
commissions,  have  exercised  powers  not  conferred  upon  them  by  the 
Constitution,  but  by  it  excluded  from  the  province  of  any  secular  tri- 
bunal— have  invaded  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Courts  of  the  Church — 
have  subverted  its  government — have  illegally  attempted  to  coerce 
Church  Courts  in  the  exercise  of  their  purely  spiritual  functions — have 
usurped  the  '  power  of  the  keys' — have  wrongfully  acclaimed,  as  the 
subjects  of  their  civil  jurisdiction,  to  be  regulated  by  their  decrees,  ordin- 
ation of  laymen  to  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  admission  to  the  cure 
of  souls,  Church  censures,  the  preaching  of  the  Word,  and  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Sacraments — and  have  employed  the  means  intrusted 
to  them  for  enforcing  submission  to  their  lawful  authority,  in  compel- 
ling submission  to  that  which  they  have  usurped — in  opposition  to  the 

1  4th  Lethendy  Case.  2  ist  and  2d  Strathbogie  Cases. 

3  3d  Strathbogie  Case.  *  5th  Strathbogie  Case. 


APPENDIX.  531 


doctrines  of  God's  Word  set  forth  in  the  Confession  of  Faith,  as  ratified 
by  statute — in  violation  of  the  Constitution — in  breach  of  the  Treaty 
of  Union,  and  in  disregard  of  divei's  express  enactments  of  the  Legis- 
lature : 

"  And  whereas  farther  encroachments  are  threatened  on  the  govern- 
ment and  discipline  of  the  Church  as  by  law  established,^  in  actions 
now  depending  before  the  said  Court,  in  which  it  is  sought  to  have 
sentences  of  deposition  from  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry  reduced  and  set 
aside, ^  and  minorities  of  inferior  judicatories  authorized  to  take  on  trial 
and  admit  to  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  in  disregard  of,  and  in  op- 
position to  the  authority  of  the  judicatories  of  which  they  are  mem- 
bers, and  of  the  superior  judicatories  to  which  they  are  subordinate  and 
subject : 

"  And  whereas  the  government  and  discipline  of  Christ's  Church  can 
not  be  carried  on  according  to  his  laws  and  the  constitution  of  his 
Church,  subject  to  the  exercise,  by  any  secular  tribunal,  of  such  powers 
as  have  been  assumed  by  the  said  Court  of  Session  : 

"  And  whereas  this  Church,  highly  valuing,  as  she  has  ever  done, 
her  connection,  on  the  terms  contained  in  the  statutes  herein  before 
recited,  with  the  State,  and  her  possession  of  the  temporal  benefits' 
thereby  secured  to  her  for  the  advantage  of  the  people,  must,  never- 
theless, even  at  the  risk  and  hazard  of  the  loss  of  that  connection  and 
of  these  public  benefits — deeply  as  she  would  deplore  and  deprecate 
such  a  result  for  herself  and  the  nation — persevere  in  maintaining  her 
liberties  as  a  Church  of  Christ,  and  in  carrying  on  the  government 
thereof  on  her  own  constitutional  principles,  and  must  refuse  to  intrude 
ministers  on  her  congregations,  to  obey  the  unlawful  coercion  attempted 
to  be  enforced  against  her  in  the  exercise  of  her  spiritual  functions  and 
jurisdiction,  or  to  consent  that  her  people  be  deprived  of  their  rightful 
liberties  : 

"  Therefore,  the  General  Assembly,  while,  as  above  set  forth,  they 
fully  recognize  the  absolute  jurisdiction  of  the  Civil  Courts  in  relation 
to  all  matters  whatsoever  of  a  civil  nature,  and  especially  in  relation 
to  all  the  temporalities  conferred  by  the  State  upon  the  Church,  and 
the  civil  consequences  attached  by  law  to  the  decisions,  in  matters 
spiritual,  of  the  Church  Courts — do,  in  name  and  on  behalf  of  this 
Church,  and  of  the  nation  and  people  of  Scotland,  and  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  several  statutes,  and  the  Treaty  of  Union  herein  before  recited, 
CLAIM,  as  of  RIGHT,  That  she  shall  freely  possess  and  enjoy  her  liber- 
ties, government,  discipline,  rights  and  privileges,  according  to  law, 
especially  for  the  defense  of  the  spiritual  liberties  of  her  people,  and 
that  she  shall  be  protected  therein  from  the  aforesaid  unconstitutional 
and  illegal  encroachments  of  the  said  Court  of  Session,  and  her  people 
secured  in  their  Christian  and  constitutional  rights  and  liberties. 

1  4th  Strathbogie  Case.  2  3d  Auchterarder  Case.    3d  Lethendy  Case. 


532  MExMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

"  And  they  declare,  that  they  can  not,  in  accordance  with  the  Word 
of  God,  the  authorized  and  ratified  standards  of  this  Church,  and  the 
dictates  of  their  consciences,  intrude  ministers  on  reclaiming  con- 
gregations, or  carry  on  the  government  of  Christ's  Church,  subject 
to  the  coercion  attempted  by  the  Court  of  Session  as  above  set  forth  ; 
and  that,  at  the  risk  and  hazard  of  suffering  the  loss  of  the  secular 
benefits  conferred  by  the  State,  and  the  public  advantages  of  an  Estab- 
lishment, they  must,  as  by  God's  grace  they  will,  refuse  so  to  do  :  for, 
highly  as  they  estimate  these,  they  can  not  put  them  in  competition 
with  the  inalienable  liberties  of  a  Church  of  Christ,  which,  alike  by 
their  duty  and  allegiance  to  their  Head  and  King,  and  by  their  ordin- 
ation vows,  they  are  bound  to  maintain,  'notwithstanding  of  whatso- 
ever trouble  or  persecution  may  arise.' 

"  And  they  protest,  that  all  and  whatsoever  Acts  of  the  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain,  passed  without  the  consent  of  this  Church  and  nation, 
in  alteration  of  or  derogation  to  the  aforesaid  government,  discipline, 
right,  and  privileges  of  this  Church  (which  were  not  allowed  to  be 
treated  of  b}'  the  Commissioners  for  settling  the  terms  of  the  union  be- 
tween the  two  kingdoms,  but  were  secured  by  antecedent  stipulation, 
provided  to  be  inserted,  and  inserted  in  the  Treaty  of  Union,  as  an 
unalterable  and  fundamental  condition  thereof,  and  so  reserved  from 
the  cognizance  and  power  of  the  federal  Legislature  created  by  the 
said  Treaty),  as  also,  all  and  whatsoever  sentences  of  Courts  in  con- 
travention of  the  same  government,  discipline,  right,  and  privileges, 
are,  and  shall  be,  in  themselves  void  and  null,  and  of  no  legal  force  or 
effect:  and  that,  while  they  will  accord  full  submission  to  all  such  acts 
and  sentences,  in  so  far — though  in  so  far  onl}' — as  these  may  regard 
civil  rights  and  privileges,  whatever  may  be  their  opinion  of  the  justice 
or  legality  of  the  same,  their  said  submission  shall  not  be  deemed  an 
acquiescence  therein,  but  that  it  shall  be  free  to  the  members  of  this 
Church,  or  their  successors,  at  any  time  hereafter,  when  there  shall 
be  a  prospect  of  obtaining  justice,  to  claim  the  restitution  of  all  such 
civil  rights  and  privileges,  and  temporal  benefits  and  endowments,  as 
for  the  present  they  may  be  compelled  to  yield  up  in  order  to  preserve 
to  their  oflSce-bearers  the  free  exercise  of  their  spiritual  government 
and  discipline,  and  to  their  people  the  liberties,  of  which  respectively 
it  has  been  attempted,  so  contrary  to  law  and  justice,  to  deprive 
them. 

"  And,  finally,  the  General  Assembly  call  the  Christian  people  of 
this  kingdom,  and  all  the  Churches  of  the  Reformation  throughout  the 
world,  who  hold  the  great  doctrine  of  the  sole  Headship  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  over  his  Church,  to  witness,  that  it  is  for  their  adherence  to  that 
doctrine,  as  set  forth  in  their  Confession  of  Faith,  and  ratified  by  the 
laws  of  this  kingdom,  and  for  the  maintenance  by  them  of  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  office-bearers,  and  the  freedom  and  privileges  of  the  mem- 


APPENDIX.  533 


bers  of  the  Church  from  that  doctrine  flowing,  that  this  Church  is  sub- 
jected to  hardship,  and  that  the  rights  so  sacredly  pledged  and  secured 
to  her  are  put  in  peril  ;  and  they  especially  invite  all  the  office-bearers 
and  members  of  this  Church,  who  are  willing  to  suffer  for  their  alle- 
giance to  their  adorable  King  and  Head,  to  stand  by  the  Church,  and 
by  each  other,  in  defense  of  the  doctrine  aforesaid,  and  of  the  liberties 
and  privileges,  whether  of  office-bearers  or  people,  which  rest  upon 
it ;  and  to  unite  in  supplication  to  Almighty  God,  that  He  would  be 
pleased  to  turn  the  hearts  of  the  rulers  of  this  kingdom,  to  keep  un- 
broken the  faith  pledged  to  this  Church,  in  former  days,  by  statutes 
and  solemn  treaty,  and  the  obligations,  come  under  to  God  Himself,  to 
preserve  and  maintain  the  government  and  discipline  of  this  Church  in 
accordance  w^ith  His  Word  ;  or  otherwise,  that  He  would  give  strength 
to  this  Church — office-bearers  and  people — to  endure  resignedly  the 
loss  of  the  temporal  benefits  of  an  Establishment,  and  the  personal  suf- 
ferings and  sacrifices  to  which  they  may  be  called,  and  would  also  in- 
spire them  with  zeal  and  energy  to  promote  the  advancement  of  His 
Son's  kingdom,  in  w^hatever  condition  it  may  be  His  will  to  place 
them ;  and  that  in  His  own  good  time.  He  would  restore  to  them  these 
benefits,  the  fruits  of  the  struggles  and  sufferings  of  their  fathers  in 
times  past  in  the  same  cause  ;  and,  thereafter,  give  them  grace  to  em- 
ploy them  more  effectually  than  hitherto  they  have  done  for  the  mani- 
festation of  His  glory." 

Protest  by  those  Commissioners  to  the  General  Assembly  ap- 
pointed TO  MEET  ON  18tH  MaY  1843,  BY  WHOM  THIS  ASSEMBLY 
WAS    CONSTITUTED. 

"  At  Edinburgh,  and  within  a  large  Hall  at  Canonmills; 
the  IBth  day  of  May  1843  years.     Sess  1. 

"  The  Commissioners  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  appointed  to  have  been  holden  this  da}'^,  having  met  in  St. 
Andrew's  Church,  the  Ministers  and  Elders,  Commissioners  thereto, 
w^iose  names  are  appended  to  the  Protest  then  and  there  made,  and 
hereinafter  inserted,  having  withdrawn  from  that  place,  and  having 
convened  in  a  large  hall  at  Canonmills,  in  presence  of  a  great  con- 
course of  Ministers,  Elders,  and  People,  and  having  duly  constituted 
themselves  in  the  name  of  the  Head  of  the  Church,  and  appointed  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Chalmers  to  be  their  Moderator,  the  Protest  above-mentioned 
was  produced  and  read,  and  thereafter  ordered  to  be  recorded  as  fol- 
lows : 

"  We,  the  undersigned  Ministers  and  Elders,  chosen  as  Commis- 
sioners to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  indicted 
to  meet  this  day,  but  precluded  from  holding  the  said  Assembly  by 
reason  of  the  circumstances  hereinafter  set  forth,  in  consequence  of 


534  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

which  a  Free  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  said  Church,  can  not  at  this  time  be 
hold  en — 

"  Considering  that  the  Legislature,  by  their  rejection  of  the  Claim 
of  Right  adopted  by  the  last  General  Assembly  of  the  said  Church, 
and  their  i-efusal  to  give  redress  and  protection  against  the  jurisdiction 
assumed,  and  the  coei-cion  of  late  repeatedly  attempted  to  be  exercised 
over  the  Courts  of  the  Church  in  matters  spiritual  by  the  Civil  Courts, 
have  recognized  and  fixed  the  conditions  of  the  Church  Establishment, 
as  henceforward  to  subsist  in  Scotland,  to  be  such  as  these  have  been 
pronounced  and  declared  by  the  said  Civil  Courts  in  their  several  i"e- 
cent  decisions,  in  regard  to  matters  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical,  where- 
by it  has  been  held,  inte?-  alia — 

"  1st.  That  the  Courts  of  the  Church  by  law  established,  and  mem- 
bers thereof,  are  liable  to  be  coerced  by  the  Civil  Courts  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  spiritual  functions  ;  and  in  particular  in  the  admission  to 
the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  and  the  constitution  of  the  pastoral  re- 
lation, and  that  they  are  subject  to  be  compelled  to  intrude  ministers 
on  reclaiming  congregations  in  opposition  to  the  fundamental  principles 
of  the  Church,  and  their  views  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  to  the  liberties 
of  Christ's  people. 

"  2d.  That  the  said  Civil  Courts  have  power  to  interfere  with  and 
interdict  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  administration  of  ordinances 
as  authorized  and  enjoined  by  the  Church  Courts  of  the  Establishment. 

"  3d.  That  the  said  Civil  Courts  have  power  to  suspend  spiritual 
censures  pronounced  by  the  Church  Courts  of  the  Establishment  against 
ministers  and  probationers  of  the  Church,  and  to  interdict  their  execu- 
tion as  to  spiritual  effects,  functions,  and  privileges. 

"  Ath.  That  the  said  Civil  Courts  have  power  to  reduce  and  set  aside 
the  sentences  of  the  Church  Courts  of  the  Establishment,  deposing 
ministers  from  the  office  of  the  holy  ministry,  and  depriving  probation- 
ers of  their  license  to  preach  the  Gospel,  with  reference  to  the  spiritual 
status,  functions,  and  privileges  of  such  ministers  and  probationers — 
restoring  them  to  the  spiritual  office  and  status  of  which  the  Church 
Com-ts  had  deprived  them. 

"  5th.  That  the  said  Civil  Courts  have  power  to  determine  on  the 
right  to  sit  as  members  of  the  supreme  and  other  judicatories  of  the 
Church  by  law  established,  and  to  issue  interdicts  against  sitting  and 
voting  therein,  irrespective  of  the  judgment  and  determination  of  the 
said  judicatories. 

"  6th.  That  the  said  Civil  Courts  have  power  to  supersede  the  ma- 
jority of  a  Church  Court  of  the  Establishment,  in  regard  to  the  ex- 
ercise of  its  spiritual  functions  as  a  Church  Court,  and  to  authorize  the 
minority  to  exercise  the  said  functions,  in  opposition  to  the  Court  itself, 
and  to  the  superior  judicatories  of  the  Establishment. 


APPENDIX.  535 


"  7th.  That  the  said  Civil  Courts  have  power  to  stay  processes  of 
discipline  pending  before  Courts  of  the  Church  by  law  established,  and 
to  interdict  such  Courts  from  proceeding  therein. 

"  8th.  That  no  pastor  of  a  congregation  can  be  admitted  into  the 
Church  Courts  of  the  Establishment,  and  allowed  to  rule,  as  well  as  to 
teach,  agreeably  to  the  institution  of  the  office  by  the  Head  of  the 
Church,  nor  to  sit  in  any  of  the  judicatories  of  the  Church,  inferior  or 
supreme — and  that  no  additional  provision  can  be  made  for  the  exercise 
of  spiritual  discipline  among  the  members  of  the  Church,  though  not 
affecting  any  patrimonial  interests,  and  no  alteration  introduced  in  the 
state  of  pastoral  superintendence  and  spiritual  discipline  in  any  parish, 
without  the  sanction  of  a  Civil  Court. 

"  All  which  jurisdiction  and  power  on  the  part  of  the  said  Civil 
Courts  severally  above  specified,  whatever  pi^oceeding  may  have  given 
occasion  to  its  exercise,  is,  in  our  opinion,  in  itself,  inconsistent  with 
Christian  liberty,  and  with  the  authority  which  the  Head  of  the  Church 
hath  conferred  on  the  Church  alone. 

"And  further  considering,  that  a  General  Assembly,  composed,  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  and  fundamental  principles  of  the  Church, 
an  part  of  commissioners  themselves  admitted  without  the  sanction  of 
the  Civil  Court,  or  chosen  by  Presbyteries  composed  in  part  of  mem- 
bers not  having  that  sanction,  can  not  be  constituted  as  an  Assembly 
of  the  Establishment  without  disregarding  the  law  and  the  legal  con- 
ditions of  the  same  as  now  fixed  and  declared ; 

"  And  further  considering,  that  such  commissioners  as  aforesaid 
would,  as  members  of  an  Assembly  of  the  Establishment,  be  liable  to 
he  interdicted  from  exercising  their  functions,  and  to  be  subjected  to 
civil  coercion  at  the  instance  of  any  individual  having  interest  who 
might  apply  to  the  Civil  Courts  for  that  purpose  5 

"  And  considering  further,  that  civil  coercion  has  already  been  in 
divers  instances  applied  for  and  used,  whereby  certain  commissioners 
returned  to  the  Assembly  this  day  appointed  to  have  been  holden,  have 
been  interdicted  from  claiming  their  seats,  and  from  sitting  and  voting 
therein;  and  certain  Presbyteries  have  been,  by  interdicts  directed 
against  their  members,  prevented  from  freely  choosing  commissioners 
to  the  said  Assembly,  whereby  the  freedom  of  such  Assembly,  and  the 
liberty  of  election  thereto,  has  been  forcibly  obstructed  and  taken 
away ; 

"  And  further  considering,  that,  in  these  circumstances,  a  free  As- 
sembly of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  by  law  established,  can  not  at  this 
time  be  holden,  and  that  an  Assembly,  in  accordance  with  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  the  Church,  can  not  be  constituted  in  connection 
with  the  State  without  violating  the  conditions  which  must  now,  since 
the  rejection  by  the  Legislature  of  the  Church's  Claim  of  Right,  be 
held  to  be  the  conditions  of  the  Establishment ; 


536  INIEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

"  And  considering  that,  while  heretofore,  as  members  of  Church 
judicatories  ratified  by  law  and  recognized  by  the  constitution  of  the 
kingdom,  we  held  ourselves  entitled  and  bound  to  exercise  and  main- 
tain the  jurisdiction  vested  in  these  judicatories  with  the  sanction  of  the 
constitution,  notwithstanding  the  decrees  as  to  matters  spiritual  and 
ecclesiastical  of  the  Civil  Courts,  because  we  could  not  see  that  the 
State  had  required  submission  thereto  as  a  condition  of  the  Establish- 
ment, but,  on  the  contrary,  were  satisfied  that  the  State,  by  the  acts 
of  the  Parliament  of  Scotland,  forever  and  unalterably  secured  to  this 
nation  by  the  Treaty  of  Union,  had  repudiated  any  power  in  the  Civil 
Courts  to  pronounce  such  decrees,  we  are  now  constrained  to  acknowl- 
edge it  to  be  the  mind  and  will  of  the  State,  as  recently  declared,  that 
such  submission  should  and  does  form  a  condition  of  the  Establishment, 
and  of  the  possession  of  the  benefits  thereof;  and  that  as  we  can  not, 
without  committing  what  we  believe  to  be  sin — in  opposition  to  God's 
law — in  disregard  of  the  honor  and  authority  of  Christ's  crown,  and  in 
violation  of  our  own  solemn  vows,  comply  with  this  condition,  we  can 
not  in  conscience  continue  connected  with  it.  and  retain  the  benefits  of 
an  Establishment  to  which  such  condition  is  attached. 

"  We,  therefore,  the  Ministers  and  Elders  foresaid,  on  this,  the  first 
occasion  since  the  rejection  by  the  Legislature  of  the  Church's  Claim 
of  Right,  when  the  commissioners  chosen  from  throughout  the  bounds 
of  the  Church  to  the  General  Assembly  appointed  to  have  been  this  day 
holden,  are  convened  together,  do  protest,  that  the  conditions  foresaid, 
while  we  deem  them  contrary  to  and  subversive  of  the  settlement  of 
church  government  effected  at  the  Revolution,  and  solemnly  guaran- 
teed by  the  Act  of  Security  and  Treaty  of  Union,  are  also  at  variance 
with  God's  Word,  in  opposition  to  the  doctrines  and  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  inconsistent  with  the  freedom  essen- 
tial to  the  right  constitution  of  a  Church  of  Christ,  and  incompatible 
with  the  government  which  He,  as  the  Head  of  his  Church,  hath  there- 
in appointed  distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate. 

"And  we  further  protest,  that  any  Assembly  constituted  in  submis- 
sion to  the  conditions  now  declared  to  be  law,  and  under  the  civil  co- 
ercion which  has  been  brought  to  bear  on  the  election  of  commissioners 
to  the  Assembly  this  day  appointed  to  have  been  holden,  and  on  the 
commissioners  chosen  thereto,  is  not  and  shall  not  be  deemed  a  lawful 
and  free  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  according  to  the  origin- 
al and  fundamental  principles  thereof:  and  that  the  Claim.  Declara- 
tion, and  Protest,  of  the  General  Assembly  which  convened  at  Edin- 
burgh in  jNIay,  1842,  as  the  act  of  a  free  and  lawful  Assembly  of  the 
said  Church,  shall  be  holden  as  setting  forth  the  true  constitution  of 
the  said  Church,  and  that  the  said  Claim,  along  with  the  laws  of  the 
Church  now  subsisting,  shall  in  nowise  be  affected  by  whatsoever  acts 
and  proceedings  of  any  Assembly  constituted  under  the  conditions  now 


APPENDIX.  537 


declared  to  be  the  law,  and  in  submission  to  the  coercion  now  imposed 
on  the  Establishment. 

"  And,  finally,  while  firmly  asserting  the  right  and  duty  of  the  civil 
magistrate  to  maintain  and  support  an  establishment  of  religion  in  ac- 
cordance with  God's  Word,  and  reserving  to  ourselves  and  our  suc- 
cessors to  strive  by  all  lawful  means,  as  opportunity  shall  in  God's 
good  providence  be  offered,  to  secure  the  performance  of  this  duty 
agreeably  to  the  Scriptures,  and  in  implement  of  the  statutes  of  the 
kingdom  of  Scotland,  and  the  obligations  of  the  Treaty  of  Union  as 
understood  by  us  and  our  ancestors,  but  acknowledging  that  we  do 
not  hold  ourselves  at  liberty  to  retain  the  benefits  of  the  Establishment, 
while  we  can  not  comply  with  the  conditions  now  to  be  deemed  there- 
to attached — we  protest,  that  in  the  circumstances  in  which  we  are 
placed,  it  is  and  shall  be  lawful  for  us,  and  such  other  commissioners 
chosen  to  the  Assembly  appointed  to  have  been  this  day  holden,  as 
may  concur  with  us,  to  withdraw  to  a  separate  place  of  meeting,  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  steps  for  ourselves  and  all  who  adhere  to  us — 
maintaining  with  us  the  Confession  of  Faith  and  Standards  of  the 
Chmx'h  of  Scotland,  as  heretofore  understood — for  separating  in  an 
orderly  way  from  the  Establishment ;  and  thereupon  adopting  such 
measures  as  may  be  com.petent  to  us,  in  humble  dependence  on  God's 
grace  and  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  the  advancement  of  His  glory, 
the  extension  of  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  affairs  of  Christ's  house,  according  to  His  Holy  Word  ; 
and  we  do  now,  for  the  purpose  foresaid,  withdraw  accordingly,  hum- 
bly and  solemnly  acknowledging  the  hand  of  the  Lord  in  the  things 
which  have  come  upon  us,  because  of  our  manifold  sins,  and  the  sins 
of  this  Church  and  nation;  but,  at  the  same  time,  with  an  assured 
conviction,  that  we  are  not  responsible  for  any  consequences  that  mav 
follow  from  this  our  enforced  separation  from  an  Establishment  which 
we  loved  and  prized — through  interference  with  conscience,  the  dis- 
honor done  to  Christ's  crown,  and  the  rejection  of  his  sole  and  supreme 
authority  as  King  in  His  Church," 


APPENDIX,  D.— P.   313. 

Address  to  the  Convocation   of  November.  1842. 

"The  question  whether  we  should  not  persevere  in  such  measures 
as  might  eventually  break  up  the  connection  between  the  Church  and 
State  hinges  on  distinct  merits  and  considerations  of  its  own,  and  I  am 
not  very  clear  that  the  view  which  I  shall  now  submit  will  furnish  any 
positive  element  for  the  decision  of  it.  It  might  be  wrong  to  precipi- 
tate the  entire  destruction  of  an  endowed  Church  in  these  lands,  even 

7* 


538  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

though  we  could  demonstrate  the  securities  which  would  be  still  within 
our  reach  for  the  amply  sufficient  maintenance  of  a  Voluntary  Church 
in  its  place;  and  it  might  be  right  to  hazard,  nay,  even  to  help  on, 
with  our  eyes  open  to  the  consequences,  the  demolition  of  our  present 
Establishment,  although  with  the  certainty  of  extreme  destitution  to 
all  our  families.  I  will  not  enter  on  the  question  of  which  would  be 
the  right  and  which  the  wrong  decision  in  this  matter.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  events  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  resolved  unalterable  prin- 
ciples of  the  great  body  among  our  clergy  on  the  other,  will,  by  God's 
grace,  insure  a  determination  worthy  of  men  who  are  in  readiness  to 
do  all,  or  to  suffer  all,  which  conscience  might  require  of  them.  But 
still  it  is  practically  of  the  greatest  importance  to  relieve  that  determ- 
ination, whatever  it  might  be,  of  all  those  adverse  or  disturbing  in- 
fluences which  are  fitted  to  shake  the  constancy  of  men  and  frighten 
them  from  their  propriety.  It  is  even  our  duty  to  lessen,  as  far  as 
may  be  consistent  with  truth,  the  force  of  those  temptations,  or  remove 
them  altogether,  which  might  cause  men  to  falter  in  their  onward 
course,  and  to  swerve  from  the  path  of  Christian  integrity  and  honor. 
On  this  ground  I  am  thankful  for  the  permission  to  state  in  the  hearing 
of  my  brethren  my  own  anticipations  on  that  subject,  or  how  it  is  that 
I  think  the  matter  really  stands.  Most  assuredly  I  do  not  want  to 
hasten  your  decision  beyond  what,  on  its  own  proper  grounds,  you 
might  deem  to  be  right  and  necessary.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  I 
should  like  to  see  removed  out  of  the  way  aught  which  might  hinder 
or  even  cause  a  hurtful  delay  in  our  adoption  of  what  ought  to  be  the 
final  decision  of  the  Church  on  the  matters  which  are  now  pending; 
or,  in  one  brief  sentence,  I  should  like  to  demonstrate  the  grounds  on 
which,  should  the  worst  come  to  the  worst,  I  look  for  the  stability  of 
our  present  Church  of  Scotland  in  these  lands,  even  should  the  foster- 
ing care  of  the  State  be  withdrawn  from  her,  and  should  she  be  sev- 
ered from  all  her  present  endowments  and  civil  immunities  by  the  hand 
of  violence. 

"The  arithmetic  on  which,  under  God,  I  found  the  confidence  I  feel 
is  soon  told.  It  is  not  because  I  count  on  a  multitude  of  great  things. 
These  may  be  either  more  frequent  or  more  numerous  than  I  shall 
attempt  to  specify,  but  I  do  count  on  a  multitude  of  small  things.  It 
is  not  on  the  sti-ength  of  large  sums  that  I  proceed  ;  it  is  on  the  strength 
and  accumulation  of  littles.  I  am  not  looking  for  much  that  is  remark- 
able in  the  way  either  of  noble  efforts  or  noble  sacrifices  ;  nor  yet  is  it 
on  the  impulse  of  strong  but  momentary  feeling  that  I  at  all  reckon. 
It  is  on  the  assiduities  of  habit  and  principle,  such  as  a  very  common 
and  every-day  exertion  in  each  district  of  our  land  might  secure  if  be- 
gun, and  such  as  the  general  influence  of  custom  alone  might  suffice 
to  perpetuate.  Such  is  the  character,  the  plain  unimaginative  charac- 
ter of  the  premises  with  which  I  am  now  dealing,  and  the  conclusion 


APPENDIX.  539 


I  draw  from  them.  What  I  call  my  minimum  result,  because  the 
very  least  to  which  I  aspire,  is  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  in  the  year. 
And  the  way  in  which  I  calculate  so  as  to  come  to  this  result  is,  that 
more  than  this  will  be  yielded  by  a  penny  a  week,  not  from  each  indi- 
vidual, but  a  penny  a  week  from  each  family  of  our  Scottish  population. 
"  Could  I  only  get  your  attention  directed  to  the  figures  and  statistics 
of  this  process,  I  should  not  despair  of  winning  the  firm  faith  and  con- 
fidence of  your  award.  And  when  I  speak  of^figures,  they  are  not  the 
figures  of  rhetoric,  let  me  assure  you,  which  I  at  all  mean.  They  are 
the  figures  of  arithmetic,  and  of  an  arithmetic  where  the  postulates  and 
the  data  might,  by  a  little  exertion,  be  made  alike  sure.  My  only  pos- 
tulates are  a  demand  for  a  penny  a  week,  on  the  average,  from  each 
household  throughout  the  country  at  large,  and  a  demand  for  half  an 
hour's  time  every  Monday  from  each  agent  or  visitor  who  will  under- 
take for  the  collection  of  it,  and  my  only  data  are  that,  while  abund- 
antly sensible  that  there  are  thousands  of  families  in  Scotland  w^ho  will 
not  only  withhold,  but  passionately  refuse  any  contribution  to  our 
cause,  and  influence  others  to  do  the  like,  still  there  are  as  many 
thousands  who  will  replace  their  lack  of  service,  and  count  it  no  great 
heroism  though  they  should  convert  their  penny  into  tw-opence  a  week; 
nay,  should  feel  it  no  great  stretch  of  generosity  though,  instead  of  a 
penny  a  week  from  the  whole  famil}^,  there  should  be  that  amount  of 
offering  from  each  member  of  it.  I  will  now  stop  short  at  that  part  of 
my  demonstration,  although  I  might  go  upward  a  great  deal  higher, 
and  tell  of  the  thousands  I  know  who  will  give  their  sixpences  a  week, 
of  the  hundreds  who  will  give  their  guineas  or  half  guineas  a  quarter, 
of  the  tens,  }'ea,  of  the  fifties,  who  will  tithe  themselves  to  the  extent 
of  from  five  to  twenty  pounds  a  year.  But  I  will  desist,  and  that  long 
before  I  have  parted  company  with  the  realities  of  the  question,  lest 
there  be  any  who  now  hear  me  who  might  think  that  I  am  taking  an 
aerial  flight  toward  the  fairy  land  of  romance.  Let  me  only,  without 
giving  names,  tell  of  four  specimens  who  have  cast  up  within  these 
few  days;  first,  a  thriving  manufacturer,  who  is  to  stake  o6l50  a  year 
on  the  moment  that  we  are  severed  from  endowments ;  then  a  gentle- 
man of  moneyed  fortune,  who  undertakes,  on  that  event,  to  furnish  the 
maintenance  of  three  clergymen  and  their  families  ;  then  a  widow,  who, 
from  the  proceeds  of  her  dowry,  and  her  own  little  fortune,  dedicates 
£200  to  the  cause ;  and,  lastly,  of  a  master  tradesman  who  will  let 
down  his  establishment  to  that  of  a  journeyman  or  common  mechanic 
rather  than  that  the  Church,  if  abandoned  by  the  State,  should  not  be  up- 
held  at  at  least  the  present  extent  of  her  efficiency  and  her  means.  But 
I  will  expatiate  no  further  on  this  walk — a  walk,  though  it  be  not  of 
speculation,  but  of  real  security,  because  I  do  not  want  to  divert  either 
the  attention  or  the  efforts  of  our  friends  from  what  I  hold  to  be  the 
solid  groundwork  on  which  the  expectations  I  have  now  ventured  to 


540  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 


announce  will  be  most  surely,  and  most  permanently  realized,  which  is 
to  enlist  on  our  side  the  humble  offerings  of  the  great  bulk  and  body  of 
our  common  people,  small  as  mites  individually,  but  of  vast  amount  in 
the  aggregate,  because  the  mites  of  a  million.  It  is  mainly  for  the 
sake  of  pointing  out  the  way  in  which  deficiencies  will  be  covered,  and 
so  as  to  uphold  the  average,  that  I  have  adverted  at  all  to  that  higher 
liberality  which  will  flow  in  upon  the  treasury  of  our  Church  from  the 
more  affluent  in  society.  Still  our  chief  security  lies  not  wn'th  any  spe- 
cial class,  but  with  the  public  at  large ;  primarily,  no  doubt,  and  above 
all,  at  the  first  with  the  religious  public,  who,  down  to  the  poorest 
among  them,  will  unite  their  offerings  with  their  prayers  in  behalf  of 
those  who  suffer  for  conscience'  sake.  It  is  by  their  help  that  we  shall 
be  enabled  to  penetrate  and  pervade  the  great  mass  and  interior  of  our 
commonwealth,  and  to  perfect  the  regulation  which  brings  us  in  con- 
tact with  the  wealth  of  all  down  to  its  humblest  degrees,  and  wMth  the 
good-will  of  all,  never  more  precious  than  when  it  glows  in  the  breast 
of  an  artisan  or  a  peasant  for  the  Church  of  his  fathers,  to  add  incon- 
ceivably both  to  the  means  and  the  moral  strength  of  that  Church,  even 
should  it  cease  to  be  an  Establishment — made  an  outcast  by  our  rulers 
and  disregarded  by  the  official  aristocracy  of  our  land. 

"  Thus  much  for  the  arithmetic  of  the  question,  as  grounded  on  a 
computation  of  the  means  or  requisite  moneys  for  the  maintenance  of 
our  Church,  on  the  event,  should  that  ever  happen,  of  its  being  cast 
by  the  State  into  a  condition  of  orphanhood  or  abandonment.  That  the 
means  do  exist,  not  I  mean  in  the  coflers  of  the  wealthy,  whence  it 
could  only  be  elicited  in  large  sums  from  the  few,  but  in  that  state  of 
general  dissemination  whence  it  could  be  called  forth  by  small  weekly 
payments  from  the  many ;  in  other  words,  that  such  means  do  exist, 
not  somewhere  alone,  but  every  where,  could  be  made  patent  to  the 
consciences  of  men  any  where,  and  by  no  mode  more  eflectually  than 
by  a  simple  assertion  of  the  sufficiency  to  that  amount  in  the  hearing 
of  the  population  themselves,  collected  for  the  purpose  of  listening  to 
an  exposition  of  the  Church's  sufferings,  and  of  the  great  expedient  by 
"which  it  was  proposed  still  to  uphold  its  ministrations  and  services 
throughout  the  parishes  of  our  land.  I  feel  thoroughly  persuaded  that, 
let  the  experiment  be  tried  in  the  midst  of  an  assemblage,  made  up  of 
any  contiguous  thousand  or  two  thousand  people,  called  together  from 
the  households  of  any  locality  in  Scotland — I  feel  most  thoroughly  per- 
suaded that,  in  every  nineteen  cases  out  of  twenty,  the  people  at  large 
■would  have  a  perfect  feeling  of  their  own  competency  for  the  part 
which  they  would  be  expected  to  take  in  it.  What  we  stand  most  in 
doubt  of  is  the  very  thing  which  they  would  feel  the  least  doubt  or  dif- 
ficulty about.  The  very  part  in  the  whole  demonstration  about  which 
we,  in  all  likelihood,  .should  feel  the  greatest  mistrust,  being  the  very 
part  respecting  which  the  greatest  confidence  and  security  v/ould  be 


APPENDIX.  54] 


felt  by  the  people  themselves.  The  truth  is,  the  very  question  whether, 
on  an  average,  a  penny  a  vi^eek  niifrht  be  looked  for  from  each  house- 
hold of  any  neighborhood  in  which  a  general  meeting  of  the  inhabitants 
might  be  held,  would  provoke  a  smile  from  the  multitude  that  any  one 
should  stand  in  doubt  or  make  a  question  of  it  at  all,  and  this  after  mak- 
ing every  allowance  for  particular  instances  of  distress  and  destitution. 
We  are  aware  that  men  in  their  hurried  and  wholesale  contemplation 
of  things  are  apt  to  be  carried  away  by  generalities,  and  under  an  over- 
whelming sense  of  an  extreme  and  universal  helplessness  among  the 
common  people,  think  that  nothing  is  to  be  had  from  them.  The  only 
way  of  dislodging  and  dissipating  that  impression  is  by  going  piecemeal 
to  w'ork,  and  making  the  actual  trial  in  one  parish  or  vicinity  after  an- 
other. For  ourselves  we  are  at  no  loss  to  understand  how  it  is  that  the 
people  of  Ireland,  whose  distresses  are  rung  perpetually  in  our  ears, 
.should  support,  not  in  comfort  alone,  but  often  in  affluence,  the  great 
body  of  the  Catholic  priesthood;  nor  were  we  in  the  least  surprised 
when,  in  convei'sation  with  one  of  my  clerical  friends  in  the  Isle  of 
Skye,  and  told  by  him  of  one  of  its  parishes  that  the  people  there  could 
do  nothing,  could  give  no  assistance  whatever,  and  must  be  altogether 
helped  from  without  for  keeping  up  the  Gospel  ministry  among  them, 
when  I  asked  whether  absolutely  nothing  could  be  looked  for,  though 
even  at  the  rate  of  a  penny  a  week  from  each  household,  he  at  once 
admitted,  that  if  I  came  down  to  such  a  nothing,  such  a  bagatelle  as 
this,  it  could  be  easily  afforded.  Now,  it  is  just  by  a  putting  together 
of  such  bagatelles  that  I  arrive  at  my  conclusions,  and  I  therefore 
repeat,  that  as  far  as  the  means  are  concerned,  we  could  obtain — and 
it  is  the  very  least  and  lowest  computation  we  should  think  of  mak- 
ing— we  could  obtain  after  the  loss  of  all  our  endowments,  the  sum  of 
£100,000  in  the  year  for  the  support  of  a  Christian  ministry  in 
Scotland,  without  sensible  encroachment  on  the  comfort  of  any,  without 
so  much  as  the  feeling  of  a  sacrifice. 

"  On  these  considerations  we  feel  quite  satisfied  that  there  is  no  de- 
fect of  means,  and  no  barrier  to  the  fulfillment  of  our  hopes,  as  we  have 
now  stated  them,  in  the  poverty  of  the  people.  But  there  is  another 
ground  on  which  I  do  admit  my  anxieties  as  well  as  my  hopes,  and 
will  frankly  confess,  along  with  the  confidence  I  feel  that  there  is  no 
defect  of  means,  my  apprehensions  at  the  same  time  that  there  may  be 
a  defect  of  agency.  Not  that  I  look  upon  this  defect  as  at  all  insuper- 
able, for  though  I  do  feel  anxious  about  it,  it  is  not  that  anxiety  which 
leads  in  the  least  to  despair,  it  is  only  the  anxiety  which  would  lead  me 
to  vigilance  and  exertion.  I  have  no  fear  about  the  means  in  that  all 
is  clear  and  satisfactory  as  respects  what  may  be  called  the  arithmetic 
of  the  question.  I  have  my  fears  as  to  the  agency,  and  therefore  I  re- 
gard as  an  object  of  the  utmost  consideration  what  may  be  called  the 
human  nature  of  the  question.    The  premises  on  which  I  calculate  are 


512  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

to  be  found,  but  then  the  prenaises  must  be  sought  after ;  and  while  I 
repeat  that  I  have  no  distrust  as  to  the  sufficiency,  or  even  the  willing- 
ness of  those  whose  province  it  is  to  give  the  offerings.  I  do  have  mis- 
givings if  certain  provisions  are  not  made  and  certain  precautions  are 
not  taken  as  to  the  doings  of  those  whose  province  it  is  to  gather  the 
offerings.  The  whole  gist  and  difficulty  of  the  problem  lies  in  this,  to 
secure  for  every  little  district  on  which  we  enter  an  aggressive  move- 
ment of  half  an  hour  a  w^eek  on  the  part  of  those  who  take  the  office 
of  collectors ;  for  if  we  gain  this  the  problem  will  be  resolved,  and  the 
scheme,  instead  of  a  fancy  will  become  a  living  fulfillment,  passing  from 
the  ideal  into  the  real,  and  the  produce  which  might  appear  well-nigh 
marvelous  to  those  who  have  neither  the  genius  to  devise  nor  the  pa- 
tience to  do,  having  just  as  little,  in  fact,  with  all  their  contempt  for  the 
visionary,  and  all  their  pretensions  to  the  practical,  just  as  little  of  true 
arithmetic  as  they  have  of  sanguine  imagination. 

"  We  have  no  fear  as  to  the  forming  of  the  agency  at  first ;  our  only 
fears,  or  rather  the  only  thing  which  will  require  being  guarded  against, 
is  the  falling  away  of  that  agency  afterward.  What  is  done  at  first  is 
done  of  impulse,  nor  can  we  imagine  how  a  more  powerful  or  a  more 
general  impulse  will  be  given,  and  so  as  to  extend  far  beyond  the  re- 
ligious public  of  Scotland,  than  by  a  movement,  if  it  shall  be  made,  of 
hundreds  of  our  most  honored  clergymen,  who,  in  obedience  to  the  high 
behests  of  a  great  and  a  sacred  principle,  resolve  to  cast  themselves  on 
the  care  of  Providence,  and  on  such  an  instrumentality  as  Providence 
might  be  pleased  to  raise  for  the  maintenance  of  a  Free  Church  and  an 
incorrupt  Gospel  in  these  lands.  We  have  no  fear  that  there  will  be  a 
very  fresh  and  vigorous  impulse  at  the  first,  but  a  thing  of  mere  impulse 
is  destined  to  subside,  and  care  must  be  taken  that  what  is  a  thing  of 
impulse  at  the  first  shall  be  so  sustained  and  so  operated  upon  as  to  be- 
come a  thing  of  habit  afterward.  It  may  have  been  impulse  at  the 
first,  which,  in  the  days  of  John  Knox,  brought  forward  thousands  of 
deacons  at  a  call,  whose  province  it  was  to  attend  on  the  collections  at 
the  church-doors ;  but  it  was  habit  afterward  which  secured  their  con- 
tinued attendance,  and,  let  me  add,  which  secured  a  regular  and  con- 
tinued offering  from  the  bulk  of  our  common  people.  And  by  impulse 
still  do  we  look  for  an  instant  resuscitation  of  this  important  order  in  the 
Church,  on  the  instant  that  the  urgent  necessities  of  the  Church  shall 
require  it ;  and  when  impulse  has  once  set  into  operation  a  weekly 
round  among  the  families  of  each  allotted  district,  habit  will  keep  it 
a-going.  The  regular  periodic  meeting  of  the  Court  of  Deacons,  in 
which  each  will  be  required  to  give  an  account  of  his  proceedings,  and 
deposit  his  proceeds  in  the  common  stock,  will  at  length  make  of  it  an 
operation  as  sure  as  mechanism.  The  omnipotence  of  habit  will  tell 
alike  on  both  parties  in  this  transaction,  both  on  the  collectors  and  con- 
tributors, both  on  the  deacon  himself  and  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  dis- 


APPENDIX.  543 


trict  for  which  he  is  responsible.  The  process  would  be  immensely  facil- 
itated, if,  going  back  to  older  times  than  the  days  of  John  Knox,  we 
availed  ourselves  of  the  subsidiary  order  of  deaconesses,  whereof  we 
read  in  the  primitive  Church,  and  whether  we  look  for  a  greater  enthu- 
siasm at  the  outset,  or  for  patient,  untiring,  duteous  attention  and  assi- 
duity afterward,  for  devotedness  of  purpose  and  principle,  followed  up 
by  diligent  and  ever-doing  performance,  it  will  be  found  in  greatest  read- 
iness and  perfection  among  the  members  of  a  female  agency,  who,  still 
as  in  the  purely  apostolic  times  of  Paul,  are  ready  to  give  themselves 
up  like  Phoebe  of  old  as  servants  of  the  Church,  or  like  Priscilla,  to 
be  our  helpers  in  Christ  Jesus,  or  like  Mary,  to  bestow  ranch  labor 
on  us,  or  like  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa,  who  labored  in  the  Lord,  or 
Persis,  who  labored  much  in  the  Lord.  The  Wesleyans,  who  raise 
their  £200,000  a  year  on  a  mere  congregational  system,  should  be 
greatly  outdone  by  the  members  of  a  Church,  who,  with  or  without 
endowments  from  the  State,  will  never,  I  trust,  let  down  the  parochial 
system,  who  will  still  continue  to  hold  by  parishes  as  well  as  congrega- 
tions, who  will  not  relinquish  this  their  present  vantage  ground,  and  so 
identify  our  doings  over  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  country 
with  the  localities  and  families  of  Scotland. 

"  Let  it  not  be  imagined,  however,  that  I  undervalue  the  good  of  a 
sti-ong  though  momentary  impulse,  nor  do  I  think  the  season  of  its  brief 
operation  should  be  suffered  to  pass  away  without  having  to  the  utmost 
improved  by  it.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  great  and  high-minded  sac- 
rifices at  the  shrine  of  duty  on  the  part  of  the  Church's  ministers  will 
be  followed  up  by  a  like  great  and  high-minded  enthusiasm  on  the  part 
of  the  Church's  friends,  in  that  should  a  movement  once  be  resolved  on 
of  cutting  our  connection  with  the  State  because  we  can  no  longer  main- 
tain it  but  at  the  expense  of  our  most  sacred  liberties,  it  is  a  movement 
which  should  be  followed  up  without  a  moment's  delay  by  simultane- 
ous meetings  in  all  the  important  towns  and  parishes  of  Scotland,  and 
that  then  not  periodical  subscriptions,  but  the  instant  donations,  should 
be  called  for,  ready  to  be  poured  forth  from  the  many  thousand  open 
hearts  and  open  hands  which  will  then  be  enlisted  on  the  side  of  our 
Church's  independence.  Whatever  the  produce  of  this  great  and  gen- 
eral contribution  might  be  on  that  day,  even  to  half  a  million,  I  would 
not  touch  one  farthing  of  it  either  for  the  maintenance  of  clergymen  or 
for  any  current  and  periodical  expenses  w^hatever,  which  should  be 
wholly  defrayed  by  current  and  periodical  offerings.  There  is  a  grand 
expediency  involved  in  this,  a  transgression  of  which  might  prove  of  in- 
finite damage  to  the  infant  economy  of  our  affairs.  There  will  be  am- 
ple room  for  the  beneficial  allotment  of  this  large  and  wholesale  munif- 
icence both  in  the  erection  of  fabrics  and  the  compensation  of  those  suf- 
ferers whom  the  so-called  law  of  the  land  shall  have  amerced  in  fines  or 
damages.     The  danger  of  alienating  any  part  of  this  sum  received  on 


544  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

the  first  and  great  excitement  to  the  maintenance  of  the  ejected  minis- 
ters is,  that  it  perils  the  less  showy,  but  in  the  end  far  more  productive 
operation  of  those  weekly  gatherings  which  come  in  little  by  little  to 
our  treasury,  and  on  which  alone  the  salaries  ought  to  be  devolved,  and 
w^hat  is  of  capital  importance,  to  be  devolved  wholly.  It  were  prema- 
ture to  explain  this  more  fully  or  particularly  at  present.  Let  me  only 
say,  that  to  seize  on  the  money  raised  by  the  impulse  of  a  gi^eat  and 
rare  occasion  for  those  expenses  which  are  ever  recurring  at  given 
periods,  instead  of  laying  them,  and  laying  them  altogether,  on  those 
ever-recurring  subscriptions  which,  though  individually  small,  will  be 
to  us  yet  by  their  summation  a  large  collective  amount  of  w^eekly  in- 
comings for  the  quaiterly  or  yearly  outgoings  of  the  society.  Such  a 
proceeding,  I  say,  were  as  grievously  impolitic  as  to  place  our  calcu- 
lations for  the  agriculture  of  the  country  on  the  brawling  winter  tor- 
rents which  perform  their  brief  and  noisy  course  in  channels  that  soon 
run  out,  and  are  only  known  to  have  existed  by  the  dry  and  deserted 
beds  they  have  left  behind  them,  instead  of  placing  their  calculations 
and  their  hopes  on  those  tiny  but  innumerable  drops  which  fall  in  uni- 
versal and  fertilizing  showers  on  the  thirsty  ground  that  is  beneath 
them. 

"  I  have  now  said  all  I  can  afford  on  the  organization  of  the  country 
necessary  to  the  raising  of  money  for  the  requisite  supplies,  and  I  will 
state  in  as  few  words  as  possible  what  I  have  to  suggest  regarding  the 
distribution  and  disposal  of  it. 

"  Firsts  then,  the  money  raised  in  any  given  locality  ought  not  to  be 
reserved  for  the  expenses  of  that  locality.  All  the  means  raised  through- 
out all  the  localities  should  be  remitted  to  a  large  central  fund,  whence 
a  distribution  of  it  should  be  made  of  the  requisite  siims  or  salaries  for 
the  ministers  of  all  our  parishes.  The  benefits  of  such  an  arrangement 
are  manifold  and  inestimable.  It  becomes  an  operation  of  infinitely 
greater  delicacy  and  good  taste  when  the  offerings  called  for  in  any 
given  neighborhood  are  not  for  the  direct  and  personal  behoof  of  their 
own  clergyman.  He  could  do  nothing  to  extend  or  .stimulate  such  a 
process ;  but  his  deacons  and  even  himself  might,  without  the  violation 
of  decorum,  bestow^  upon  it  their  full  countenance  and  activity  when 
seen  in  its  true  character  as  part  of  a  general  scheme  for  the  high 
patriotic  object  of  supporting  a  ministry  of  the  Gospel  throughout  the 
whole  of  Scotland. 

"  Secondly,  and  what  gives  a  still  more  disinterested  character  to 
the  scheme,  is  the  noble  resolution  announced  at  the  memorable  meet- 
ing held  in  the  West  Kirk  in  the  month  of  August,  1841,  wherein  the 
town  ministers — the  ministers  of  the  most  opulent  parishes,  and  whence 
the  largest  contributions  will  be  made  to  the  general  fund — agree  to 
share  alike  with  the  ministers  of  the  poorest  parishes  in  Scotland. 
This  law  of  equal  division  among  the  clergy  will  give  rise  to  the 


APPENDIX.  545 


operation  of  pure  and  high  principles  both  in  the  rich  and  the  poorer 
parishes.  The  liberality  of  the  former  will  be  stimulated  not  by  the 
near  and  narrow  consideration  of  a  support  for  their  own  minister,  but 
by  the  great  and  soul-expanding  consideration  that  they  are  helping 
out  a  provision  for  the  Gospel  in  the  most  destitute  localities  of  the 
land  ;  and  the  efforts  and  sacrifices  of  the  latter  will  be  stimulated 
by  the  honorable  ambition  of  raising  their  contributions  as  near  to  the 
dividend  as  possible — nay,  in  this  noble  work  of  provoking  each  other 
to  love  and  to  good  works,  of  raising  it  to  a  point  which  might  enable 
them  to  say,  'We  give  as  much  as  we  receive;'  or,  adopting  the  lan- 
guage of  Paul,  '  Our  own  hands  have  ministered  in  full  to  our  neces- 
sities.' But  whether  this  be  attainable  or  not,  it  is  well  that  the  min- 
isters of  our  most  remote  and  destitute  localities  should  know  that  they 
have  not  the  capability  of  their  own  parishes  alone,  but  the  capability 
of  the  whole  religious  public  in  Scotland,  to  count  upon — yea,  more, 
and  it  were  one  of  the  most  precious  fruits  of  this  arrangement,  that 
the  very  oldest  of  our  ministers — those  venerable  fathers  who  have 
borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,  perhaps  unable  to  labor,  yet  un- 
willing and  ashamed  to  remain  in  fellowship  with  a  spurious  and  de- 
graded Church  that  shall  have  then  bowed  the  knee  to  an  Erastian 
domination,  it  were  indeed  a  heartfelt  satisfaction  to  assure  all  such 
that  they  will  not  be  forsaken  by  their  brethren  at  large,  but  that,  ad- 
mitted to  a  just  place  of  honor  in  the  then  free  and  unfettered  Church 
of  Scotland,  they  to  the  day  of  their  death  will  be  made  to  participate 
equally  and  alike  with  them  in  the  joint  offerings  of  her  children. 

"  But,  thirdly,  you  wull  observe  that  on  this  system  of  the  equal 
division,  right  and  beautiful  as  it  is,  yet  did  our  financial  operations 
stop  here  and  proceed  no  further,  then  the  clergy  in  different  parts  of 
our  Establishment,  with  nominally  the  same  means,  would  yet  fare 
very  unequally.  On  the  supposition  that  the  yearly  produce  of  a  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  were  I'ealized — and  we  repeat  that  most  cer- 
tainly this  is  the  lowest  minimum  we  should  ever  think  of — and  on  the 
further  supposition  that  five  hundred  of  our  body,  on  her  submission  to 
an  Erastian  rule  over  the  Church,  were  severed  from  its  endowments, 
this,  yielding  as  it  would  £200  a  year  to  each,  might  almost  make  out 
a  full  compensation  for  the  loss  in  many  of  our  least  and  worst  provided 
parishes ;  while  in  our  large  towns,  and  even  in  the  best  and  richest 
districts  of  the  country,  it  would  work  a  sudden  and  severe  reduction 
in  the  income  of  the  minister.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  our  financial 
system  ought  not  to  stop  at  the  lowest  point  to  which  I  have  yet  car- 
ried my  explanation  of  it.  There  is  one  step  more,  and  as  far  as  the 
support  of  our  existent  clergy  is  concerned,  the  whole  w^ould  be  com- 
pleted. After  that  the  organization  has  been  set  up  in  each  parish 
ibr  behoof  of  the  general  fund — oi-,  in  other  words,  after  that  an 
association  has  been  formed  and  put  into  regular  working  order  for 


546  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

the  raising  and  the  remitting  of  its  quarterly  or  yearly  proceeds  to  what 
may  be  called  the  great  national  treasury  of  the  Church,  there  can  be 
no  objection — nay,  it  were  most  desirable  that  a  distinct  supplementary 
effort  should  be  made  in  each  parish  for  the  express  purpose  of  eking 
out  and  extending  the  allowance  of  its  own  minister.  A  weekly  col- 
lection at  the  church  door  opens  up  a  ready  channel  for  carrying  this 
into  effect ;  but  in  whatever  way  the  thing  is  done,  and,  and  let  each 
congregation  take  its  own  way  of  it,  hei-e  is  a  method  by  which  the 
inequality  of  the  equal  dividend  might  most  effectually  be  repaired. 
The  same  dividend  would  come  to  each  all  over  the  land  ;  and  from 
that  part  of  his  stipend  which  he  received  at  the  hands  of  external 
Voluntaryism — a  principle  this,  w'hich,  so  far  from  conflicting,  coin- 
cides and  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  principle  of  a  National  Estab- 
lishment— the  supplementary  contributions  again  would  be  very  unequal 
which  each  would  receive  at  the  hands  of  internal  Voluntaryism — a 
principle  not  identical  w^ith  the  former,  yet  not  superseded  either  by  it 
or  even  by  the  principle  of  a  National  Establishment — not  in  England, 
where  both  fees  and  gratuities  are  superadded  to  the  regularly  ordained 
provision — and  not  in  the  Old  Testament  Church,  where,  in  addition 
to  the  tithes  and  levies,  scope  was  allowed  for  the  free-will  offerings 
of  the  people.  These  offerings  will  vary  exceedingly  in  the  various 
parts  of  our  land ;  but  it  is  satisfactory  to  think  that  they  will  be 
largest  in  those  towns  where  they  wnll  be  most  needed,  and  smallest  in 
those  places  where  the  dividend  comes  the  nearest  to  the  stipend  that 
has  been  relinquished — a  beautiful  adaptation,  which  might  perhaps 
cause  the  income  of  certain  ministers  to  be  better;  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  that  of  all  the  others  not  worse  than  before. 

''Bnt,  fourthly,  and  lastly,  and  most  importantly  of  all.  Though  we 
can  never  consent  to  regard  the  whole  sum  of  £100,000,  which  we 
have  made  the  basis  or  base  line  of  our  calculation — though  we  can 
never  consent  to  regard  it  in  any  other  light  than  as  a  minimum  capa- 
ble of  large  and  indefinite  augmentation,  yet  nevertheless  there  ought 
for  each  dividend  or  share,  which  each  minister  receives  of  the  fund,  to 
to  be  an  understood  maximum,  a  fixed  quantity,  whether  it  be  £200 
a  year  or  something  else,  not  to  be  increased  with  the  increase  of  the 
contributions — that  is,  not  to  be  made  larger  out  of  the  central  treasury, 
however  much  larger  it  might  be  made  by  the  supplementary  and  sep- 
arate efforts  of  each  congregation.  In  other  words,  although  the  in- 
come of  the  national  treasury  should  become  larger — and  we  think  it 
capable  of  being  made  very  much  larger  than  the  minimum  which  we 
have  supposed  and  set  out  with — we  would  not  on  this  account  have 
the  general  allowance  for  each  minister  from  the  central  fund,  after  it 
has  reached  the  given  amount,  we  would  not  go  beyond  that  amount 
by  having  it  made  larger.  It  is  true  that  there  would  then  be  a 
greater  revenue,  and  so  there  would,  and  ought  to  be  a  greater  ex- 


APPENDIX.  547 


penditure ;  but  this  additional  expenditure  should  not  go  to  increase 
the  stipends  of  ministers — it  should  go  to  the  increase  of  the  number 
of  them.  This  will  open  a  boundless  field  for  the  liberality  of  oui 
Christian  brethren — a  bright  and  beautiful  ulterior  to  which  every  eye 
should  be  directed,  that  each  may  have  in  full  view  the  great  and 
glorious  achievement  of  a  Church  commensurate  with  the  land  in 
which  we  dwell,  and  every  heart  be  elevated  by  the  magnificent  aim 
to  cover  with  the  requisite  number  of  churches,  and  with  God's  bless- 
ing on  the  means,  Christianly  to  educate,  and  in  return  for  our  per- 
formances and  prayers  to  Christianize  the  whole  of  Scotland. 

"  There  is  a  very  great  and  high  expediency  in  this  arrangement ; 
and  it  is  made  up  of  the  three  following  parts  :  First^  the  provision  of 
our  existing  ministers  would  not  be  neglected,  because  it  would  form 
the  prior  and  preferable  object  to  be  met  and  provided  for  in  the  first 
instance,  and  which  would  be  made  all  the  more  secure  that  it  was 
bound  up  with  so  noble  a  fulfillment  as  that  in  which  it  w^as  made  to 
issue,  and  have  its  final  outgoing. 

"  Secondly,  it  would  place  our  whole  enterprise  before  the  eye  of  the 
public  in  its  true  character.  What  proves  the  character  of  any  under- 
taking is  its  terminus  ad  quern.  Now  the  terminus  ad  quern  of  ours  is 
not  a°provision  for  the  ejected  ministers  ;  it  is,  in  the  first  instance,  the 
benefit  of  their  Christian  services,  and  then  the  multiplication  of  these 
services  over  the  whole  face  of  our  territory.  I  could  plead  and  hold 
up  my  face  unabashed  for  such  a  design  in  any  company,  and  before 
any  assemblage.  It  would  and  will  be  stigmatized  by  our  enemies  as 
a  beggarly  expedition  for  a  beggarly  purpose.  It  will  be  no  such 
thing.  It  will  be  a  high  career  of  religious  philanthropy;  an  enlarged 
and  liberated  scheme  of  Church  extension,  carried  forward  by  pure, 
and  great,  and  heart-stirring  appeals,  in  behalf  of  a  great  object  of 
Christian  patriotism. 

"  Thirdly,  such  an  aim  and  a  direction  will  not  only  have  the  effect 
of  keeping  our  object  altogether  pure.  It  will  have  the  undoubted 
effect  of  making  the  contributions  high.  We  shall  soon  overshoot  our 
proposed  minimum,  and  look  back  upon  it  as  the  paltry  beginning  of 
our  great  national  undertaking.  The  liberalities  of  the  Christian  pub- 
lic will  be  kept  at  a  loftier  pitch,  when  you  thus  supply  them  with  a 
loftier  aim  and  a  larger  arena.  Thousands  w^ill  give  tenfold  more  than 
the  weekly  pence  which  we  set  out  with  at  the  commencement  of  our 
demonstration ;  and  yet,  after  all  they  have  given,  and  experienced  how 
little  they  have  foregone  of  any  substantial  comfort,  or  of  so  much  as 
one  enjoyment  that"  is  worth  the  caring  for,  will  they  see  reason  for 
the  exclamation  of  Hannah  More,  '  0  how  cheap  is  charity ;  O  how 
expensive  is  vanity.' 

"  Behold,  then,  our  capabilities  for  a  great  and  high  work  of  Chris- 
tian  philanthropy  ;  and  Scotland,  our  own  beloved  Scotland,  will  be  the 


548  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

first  lo  realize  it — I  mean  first  in  the  order  of  importance,  and  not  in 
the  order  of  time,  for  I  have  no  idea  that,  let  the  transition  come  when 
it  ma)',  any  of  our  present  enterprises  will  need  for  a  moment  to  be 
suspended.  When  we  carry  the  Church,  we  carry  all  the  Church's 
schemes  along  with  us.  If  faithfully  doing  God's  work,  God  will 
cause  our  cup  to  overflow,  and  pour  down  such  a  blessing  as  that 
there  shall  be  no  room  to  receive  it.  But  confining  ourselves  to  the 
operations  of  a  great  home  mission  into  which  we  should  then  be  re- 
solved, not  only  might  we  keep  possession  of  all  the  ground  at  present 
occupied  by  our  right-minded  ministers,  but  proceed  to  take  possession, 
first,  of  all  that  heathen  territory  which  we  have  not  yet  been  able  to 
overtake ;  and,  second,  of  all  the  Erastian  territory,  which  for  the  present 
we  might  be  forced  to  leave  behind  us.  It  were  indeed  a  great  and 
a  glorious  Church  extension,  with  the  indispensable  satellite  of  a  com- 
mensurate School  extension  keeping  onwardly  by  its  side,  or  following 
closely  in  its  train.  Be  assured  there  would  bo  no  di-awing  in  of  our 
Christian  philanthropy.  There  would  be  an  immeasurable  expansion 
or  going  out  of  it ;  and  that  on  hundreds  of  places  not  yet  entered  or 
visited  by  any  of  its  operations — on  the  lanes  and  plebeian  streets  of 
our  large  towns,  on  the  desolate  untrodden  outfield  of  our  more  un- 
wieldy parishes.  There  a  numerous  band  of  youthful,  zealous,  and 
devoted  agents  in  the  form  both  of  students  and  preachers  ready  even 
now  to  go  forth  as  pioneers  of  this  moral  wilderness,  and  in  whose 
hands  there  might  be  an  instant  and  visible  display  of  the  Christian 
good  which  the  Church,  shaken  loose  from  its  present  entanglements 
and  fetters,  is  able  to  accomplish.  It  would  give  rise  to  a  strong  re- 
ciprocal emulation  between  the  givers  and  the  doers  of  this  noble  en- 
terprise, who  would  act  and  react  most  beneficially  and  powerfully  into 
each  other's  hands.  It  were  like  the  law  of  action  and  reaction  in  the 
mental  world,  when  thus  a  prosperous  interchange  takes  place  between 
the  services  and  the  liberalities  of  the  Church's  friends  :  the  services 
awakening  and  calling  forth  the  liberalities — the  liberalities  sustaining 
and  extending  the  services. 

''  It  is  not  to  speed,  and  far  less  to  overbear  your  determinations 
that  we  have  endeavored  to  set  this  argument  before  you,  but  to  re- 
move, if  possible,  disturbing  forces  in  the  way  either  of  clearly  per- 
ceiving, or  of  righteously  judging  where  it  is  that  the  path  of  duty  and 
of  rectitude  lies.  It  is  to  demonstrate,  in  as  far  as  it  can  be  made 
intelligible  to  the  eye  of  sense,  what  ought  never  to  be  lost  sight  of  by 
the  eye  of  faith — that  the  Church  even  though  driven  from  her  present 
holdings,  might  yet  be  sustained  on  as  firm  and  high  a  vantage  ground 
of  Christian  usefulness  as  before,  when,  broken  loose  from  her  present 
entanglements,  she  goes  forth  at  the  call  and  the  openings  of  Provi- 
dence, cheered  by  the  smiles  of  an  approving  Heaven,  and  rejoicing  in 
the  inspiration  of  liberty.     You  will  now,  perhaps,  be  better  able  to 


APPENDIX.  549 


compare  the  two  sides  of  your  prospect,  and  say  whether  it  were  bet- 
ter to  prolontr  this  weary  and  harassing  struggle  with  the  enemies 
without  our  Estabhshment,  and  the  rebels  within,  or  by  shaking  your- 
self free,  make  clean  escape  from  the  tracasseries  which  compass  and 
impede  you  in  every  direction.  But  let  me  not  forget  that  this  is  not 
immediately,  though  it  may  afterward  come  to  be  eventually  the 
question.  The  thing  for  present  decision,  is  not  whether  now  the 
Church  shall  cut  connection  with  the  State,  but  what  now  shall  be  our 
language  to  them  who  have  the  power  and  authority  of  the  State  in 
their  hands  ;  and  I  confidently  ask,  on  the  premises  which  I  have  tried, 
however  imperfectly,  to  lay  down,  whether  this  ought  to  be  a  language 
of  irresolution  and  timidity — of  men  in  perplexity  because  their  hearts 
are  failing  them  for  fear,  or  ready  in  the  least  to  recede  or  to  compro- 
mise, because  of  the  approaching  riiin  that  is  now,  in  the  scared  im- 
aginations perhaps  of  a  few,  opening  to  engulf  and  swallow  up  the 
majority  of  ministers  in  Scotland  ?  My  prayer  is  for  an  unfaltering 
progression  in  a  steady,  rectilineal  coui-se,  and  that  you  may  never  be 
tempted  to  subordinate  the  kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world  to  the 
Government  of  this  world's  powers." 


APPENDIX,  E.— P.  362. 

"In  the  summer  of  1841,  I  drew  up  the  following  scheme  for  the 
Economics  of  our  Church,  should  it  be  severed  from  its  endowments, 
and  submitted  it  to  the  view  and  judgment  of  several  of  my  friends  : 

"  Scheme   for  the   Economics  of  a  Free  Church. 

"  1st.  That  Associations  should  be  formed  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
for  receiving  both  donations  and  termly  payments  in  support  of  the 
Church. 

"  2d.  That  the  produce  of  these  Associations  should  be  remitted  to 
Edinburgh,  and  there  formed  into  a  General  Fund,  under  the  manage- 
ment of  a  Central  or  Metropolitan  Board. 

"  3d.  That  this  Fund  should  furthermore  be  upheld  by  direct  offer- 
ings, either  single  or  periodical,  on  the  part  of  those  who  may  not  be 
in  the  way  of  remitting  their  contributions  through  the  medium  of  a 
local  Association. 

''  Ath.  That  the  General  Fund  shall  be  separated  into  two  parts — 
a  Building  and  a  Sustentation  Fund — the  former  made  up  of  the  dona- 
tions, and  the  latter  of  the  termly  payments,  unless  otherwise  specified 
by  the  contributors,  who  of  course  are  at  perfect  liberty  to  assign  either 
of  these  objects. 

"  5th.  That  from  the  Sustentation  Fund  a  certain  equal  dividend 


550  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

should  be  awarded  to  each  minister  of  the  Church,  not  exceeding  the 
sum  of yearly. 

"  6th.  That  whatever  surplus  remained  after  the  allocation  of  their 
yearly  dividend  to  the  ministers  of  the  Church,  should  be  devoted  to 
the  objects  of  Church  and  School  Extension, 

"  7th.  That  it  shall  be  competent  for  each  congregation  to  increase 
the  allowance  received  by  the  ministers  from  the  General  Fund,  by 
separate  and  supplementary  efforts  of  their  own. 

'•  8th.  That  the  ancient  order  of  Deacons  shall  be  revived  in  each 
congregation,  whose  special  office,  as  formerly,  shall  be  to  take  such 
charge  as  might  be  committed  to  them  of  those  funds  which  are  raised 
whether  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  or  the  sustentation  of  the  ministry. 

"  This  scheme,  of  course,  but  presents  the  features  of  a  very  general 
outline,  subject  to  such  modifications  as  might  be  approved  of — various 
of  which  modifications  will  fall  to  be  discussed  in  the  following  pages. 
There  is  in  it.  however,  what  we  hold  to  be  the  essence  of  every  such 
scheme  as  is  fitted,  not  only  to  support  the  Church  up  to  its  present 
magnitude,  but  so  to  extend  it  as  that  it  shall  become  commensurate 
to  the  full  supply  of  religious  instruction  for  the  whole  of  Scotland. 

"At  the  great  public  meeting  held  at  St.  Cuthbert's  Church  in  Au- 
gust, 1841,  there  was  a  general  exposition  given  by  Dr.  Candlish  of  a 
scheme  bearing  a  close  resemblance  in  all  its  essential  elements  to  the 
one  which  I  have  now  presented  to  the  reader.  Whether  it  was  that 
he  had  seen  this  scheme,  and  had  approved  of  it,  or  that  it  was  sug- 
gested originally  and  independently  to  his  own  mind,  it  is  most  satis- 
factory to  find  that  it  met  the  support  of  one  whose  opinion  is  so  fitted 
to  influence  the  counsels  of  the  Church. 

"I  did  anticipate,  therefore,  that  it  would  have  obtained  a  greater 
amount  of  credit  and  coalescence,  when  I  unfolded  it  at  some  length 
at  the  meeting  of  the  Convocation  in  the  November  of  1842,  I  was 
disappointed  in  this  expectation ;  and  could  well  perceive  that  what  to 
my  own  view  was  manifest  as  day,  having  all  the  lights  both  of  arith- 
metic and  experience  to  rest  upon  it,  was  held  by  many,  if  not  by  most 
of  those  whom  I  addressed,  as  but  the  dream  of  a  fond  and  ardent  im- 
agination. I  felt  fhat  the  success  of  our  Church  Extension  (where  the 
result  was  at  least  tenfold  of  what  the  Church  at  large  had  ever  deemed 
to  be  possible)  might  have  protected  me  from  the  mortification  of  so 
great  an  incredulity.  But  such  was  not  my  good-fortune  :  and  certain 
it  is,  that  my  attempted  demonstrations  fell,  at  the  time,  still-born  on 
the  ears,  if  not  of  unwilling,  at  least  of  unimpressed  and  unconvinced 
auditors." 

The  reader  interested  in  the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  Susten- 
tation Fund,  is  requested,  after  perusing  the  chapter  in  the  Memoir,  to 
read  the  following  extracts  from  Dr.  Chalmers's  "  Earnest  Appeal :'''' 


APPENDIX. 


551 


On  Scales  of  Distribution- 

"  These  can  be  variously  constructed.  The  rate  of  one  and  a  half 
more,  would  give  rise  to  a  scale,  No.  1,  of  the  three  here  subjoined. 
The  other  two  have  been  actually  proposed. 


(1.) 

(2.) 

(3.) 

Contribution. 

Stipend. 

Contribution. 

stipend. 

Contribution. 

stipend. 

jCSO 

£75 

£60 

£120 

£50 

£120 

60 

90 

70 

130 

60 

130 

70 

105 

80 

140 

70 

136 

80 

120 

90 

150 

80 

144 

90 

135 

110 

165 

90 

152 

100 

150 

130 

180 

100 

158 

155 

190 

110 

164 

The  increase  of  the  2d 

180 

200 

120 

170 

column  stops  here.    The 

200 

205 

130 

176 

first  rises  upward  through 

220 

210 

140 

180 

the  aid-receiving   to  tlie 

150 

184 

contributions  of  the  aid- 

Both   columns 

continue 

160 

188 

giving  congregations. 

to  increase. 

180 
200 
220 

193 

198 

208 

Both  columns  increa,se. 

"  It  will  be  observed  that  by  the  second  and  third  scales  no  congre- 
gation becomes  an  aid-giver  till  its  contribution  has  risen  above  £200. 
All  at  or  below  d£200  are  aid-receivers.  Let  it  be  observed  that  at 
present  we  have  only  sixty-seven  congregations  who  give  up  to  or 
above  £200 ;  and  that  if  there  be  no  increase  in  the  number  of  them, 
over  and  above  providing  the  stipends  of  their  own  ministers,  they 
would  have  to  make  up  the  deficiency  of  toward  six  hundred  aid-re- 
ceiving congregations. 

"  We  hold  that  the  main  purpose  of  scales  would  be  served  by  the 
simple  regulation,  that  no  congregation  should  be  connected  with  our 
General  Fund  till  it  remitted  £50  a  year — after  which,  let  us  imagine 
a  scale  terminating  where  No.  1  does ;  but  that,  instead  of  its  rate  of 
one  and  a  half,  each  should  receive  £50  more  than  its  contribution  till 
the  stipend  came  to  £150,  and  there  should  be  no  further  increase 
upon  it.  This  would  give  rise  to  the  following  scale  :  For  £50,  get 
back  £100;  for  £60,  £110;  for  £70,  120;  for  £80,  130;  for  £90, 
£145;  for  £100,  £150.  After  the  selfish  principle  had  carried  up 
so  many  congregations  to  the  contribution  of  £100,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  so  many  more  would  not  stop  there ;  but  that  the  generous  prin- 
ciple would  then  begin  to  operate,  and  we  should  have  contributions 
of  dBllO,  66120,  anddElSO — lessening  their  burden  upon  us  from  <£50 
to  c£40,  dESO,  &c.,  till  they  became  self-supporting  at  £150.  Then, 
and  at  this  point  would  there  commence  our  aid-giving  congregations ; 


552  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

and  it  will  give  some  idea  of  the  capabilities  of  our  Church,  if  to  avoid 
complexity  we  shall  keep  out  of  view  the  intermediate  congregations ; 
and,  suppose  that  all  the  aid-receiving  congregations  cost  £50  each 
to  the  General  Fund.  Let  us  then  conceive  our  Church  to  consist  of 
750  congregations,  and  that  one-third  of  them  only,  or  250,  are  aid- 
giving,  while  two-thirds,  or  500,  are  aid-receiving.  This  would  imply 
a  deficiency  on  the  part  of  the  latter  to  the  extent  of  ^25,000  to  be 
made  up  by  the  former,  whose  contributions  would  therefore  require  tn 
average  ,£250  each — that  is,  £150  reserved  each  for  its  own  minister, 
and  £100  over  and  above  for  the  deficient  congregations.  The  sum 
total  from  the  250  aid-giving  congregations  would  amount  to  £62,500. 
The  sura  total  from  the  aid-receiving  congregations,  on  the  supposition 
that  they  averaged  £100  each,  would  be  £50,000.  Or,  in  other  words, 
from  a  net  revenue  of  £112,500.  we  could  afl^ord  to  give  £150  a  year 
to  each  of  750  ministers.  This  might  be  realized  next  year,  could 
we  only  get  rid  of  the  enormous  deficiencies  of  those  who  now  give  us 
less  than  £50  a  year.  Why.  to  get  up  these  alone  to  this  £150,  we 
should  require  to  exj')end  more  than  the  whole  £25,000  of  surplus  put 
into  our  hands  by  the  aid-giving  congregations — whereas,  with  this 
surplus,  and  on  the  simple  adoption  of  the  regulation  that  none  should 
be  admitted  into  connection  with  us  till  they  give  £50 — we  could,  with 
the  same  £25,000  of  surplus,  insure  a  dividend  of  £150  a  year  through- 
out nearly  all,  or  with  a  very  few  straggling  exceptions,  a  whole  Church 
of  750  ministers. 

"  And  let  it  not  be  said  that  by  ridding  oui'selves  of  this  incubus, 
we  doom  to  extinction  so  many  of  our  poorer  congregations.  The 
truth  is,  that  almost,  if  not  altogether,  they,  every  one  of  them,  under 
the  stimulus  of  getting  as  they  gave,  would  remit  the  6650.  Or  if 
some  few  did  not,  there  is  not  one  of  them,  if  found  by  the  Home  Mis- 
sion Committee  to  be  meritorious  cases,  which  would  not  receive  what 
would  make  up  c£l00  from  their  funds — a  sum  as  great  as  they  ever 
can  receive  under  the  system  of  an  equal  dividend — a  system,  there- 
fore, which,  though  continued  for  their  sakes,  would  yield  no  practical 
good  to  them,  and  at  the  heavy  expense  of  keeping  down  the  general 
dividend  to  its  present  level ;  or,  if  the  extension  of  our  Church  is  to 
be  prosecuted,  of  sinking  it  still  lower. 

"  When  I  think  of  the  perfect  ease  wherewith  both  dividends  might 
be  increased,  and  the  Church  rapidly  extended,  I  am  all  the  more  con- 
.scious  that  these  various  schemes  of  distribution  should  be  discussed 
with  the  most  perfect  temper  and  forbearance ;  and,  also,  that  enough 
of  time  should  be  taken  for  the  maturing  of  them.  It  were  grievous, 
indeed,  if,  when  within  demonstrable  reach  of  so  blessed  a  consumma- 
tion, we  should  fall  short  of  it  by  falling  out  among  ourselves.  Let 
us  not  give  our  enemies  this  triumph. 

"  There  is  nothing  which  has  more  shaken  our  confidence  in  the 


APPENDIX.  553 


disposition  of  the  Free  Church  to  become  an  extending  Church,  or  at 
least  in  its  perception  of  the  right  measures  for  carrying  this  into  ef- 
fect, than  a  late  resolution  on  the  part  of  a  numerous  meeting  of  its 
ministers  and  elders,  that  the  equal  dividend  should  be  kept  up  in  those 
charges  whose  ministers  came  out  at  the  Disruption,  even  after  the 
outgone  minister  had  been  removed  by  death  or  by  translation,  and 
been  succeeded  by  one  who  had  made  no  sacrifice.  If  there  be  any 
soundness  in  the  principle  that  congregations  should  be  encourao-ed  to 
make  an  effort  for  themselves  by  getting  in  proportion  as  they  give — 
then  there  is  so  little  sense  or  reason  in  exempting  from  the  operation 
of  this  rule,  and  that  forever,  all  those  geographical  portions  of  the 
Free  Church  territory  whose  ministers  happened  to  come  out  at  the 
Disruption,  that  the  resolution  they  should  be  so  exempted  looks  very 
like  a  blow  at  the  rule  or  principle  itself.  And  then,  should  the  blow 
take  effect,  it  will  involve  the  restoration  of  a  universal  equal  dividend, 
both  present  and  prospective.  Our  reason  for  deprecating  such  a 
measure  as  ruinous,  is  not  that  it  wuU  hang  with  depressing  effect  in 
all  time  coming  upon  the  dividend,  though  this  must  be  one  of  its  sure 
results,  but  that  it  will  prove  a  death-blow  to  our  Church's  extension, 
and  thus  incaj-iacitate  her  for  taking  a  share  in  the  honorable  work  of 
making  aught  like  a  large  or  successful  inroad  on  that  outfield  popu- 
lation who  occupy  the  wide  and  fearfully  increasing  domain  of  the 
country's  practical  heathenism.  It  will  land  us  in  a  most  anomalous 
sj-stem,  at  variance  with  all  the  attempts  which  have  been  made  of 
late  years  for  adding  to  the  number  of  ministers,  or  churches,  or  schools 
in  the  land.  The  regium  donum  proceeds  on  the  rule  of  getting  as 
they  give — the  sum  awarded  to  the  minister  from  the  Treasury  bear- 
ing a  proportion  to  the  sum  raised  for  him  by  the  congregation.  The 
present  allowance  from  the  State  for  the  erection  of  schools  is  regu- 
lated by  the  amount  of  private  subscriptions  for  the  same  object.  The 
Church  Extension  of  the  old  General  Assembly,  under  which  200 
churches  sprang  into  being  in  four  or  five  years,  advanced  with  such 
rapid  strides,  not  by  granting  to  all  equally  from  the  Central  Fund,  at 
which  rate  we  should  not  have  had  a  tenth  part  of  these  additional 
churches — but  by  a  certain  regulated  centage,  which  left  the  remain- 
der, or  rather  main  bulk  of  the  expense,  to  be  provided  for  by  local 
efforts.  Let  not  our  Church  be  abandoned  to  the  recklessness  of  men 
who,  under  the  power  of  one  engrossing  idea,  or  misled  by  some  spe- 
cious plausibility  that  carries  in  it, the  semblance,  and  but  the  sem- 
blance, of  the  reasonable  and  the  right,  would  shut  out  the  light  of  all 
these  experiences,  and  rush  headlong  into  a  policy  that  would  soon 
bring  us  to  a  dead  stand.  The  equal  dividend,  carried  out  and  per- 
sisted in,  wnll  not  only  operate,  which  it  has  already  done,  to  a  fearful 
extent,  as  a  sedative  on  the  efforts  of  the  aid-receiving,  but  a.s  a  seda- 
tive loo,  and  that  right  soon,  on  the  liberalities  of  the  aid-giving  con- 

VOL.  IV. — A  A- 


554  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

gregations.  The  spectacle  of  nearly  one-half  of  our  Churches  receiv- 
ing each  £120  from  the  Central  Treasury,  and  contributing  less  than 
£50,  and  this  palpably  due,  not  to  the  necessities  of  the  case,  but  to 
the  downright  apathy  or  indolence  of  Deacons  and  Collectors — such  a 
spectacle  can  not  long  be  perpetuated,  but  will  soon  fall  to  pieces  un- 
der the  weight  and  the  exhaustion  of  its  own  natural  decay. 

"  We  have  heard  it  objected  to  the  method  of  getting  as  they  give, 
that  instances  may  occur  of  the  remittance  from  the  Association  being 
made,  not  of  a  sum  raised,  but  of  a  sum  borrowed,  and  this  to  canse 
the  larger  proportional  return  from  the  Central  Fund  in  Edinburgh. 
And  it  is  argued,  from  the  possible  or  even  the  actual  occurrence  of 
such  a  flagrant  iniquity,  in  one  or  two  instances,  that  the  system, 
though  otherwise  and  in  general  of  most  wholesome  operation,  .should 
be  therefore  done  away.  It  were  well  if  these  reasoners  would  only 
bethink  themselves  of  wherein  it  is  that  the  necessity  or  the  wisdom 
of  legislation  lies — not  most  certainly  in  the  sacrifice  of  a  universal 
good,  and  this  for  the  prevention  of  such  a  rare  and  disgraceful  enor- 
mity, that  the  very  exposure  of  it  would  prove  its  own  severest  pun- 
ishment, and  therefore  its  own  most  effectual  check  and  corrective ; 
but  for  the  prevention  of  a  sore  and  universal  evil,  and  this  through  the 
operation  of  a  natural  lethargy,  which  stirs  up  no  vivid  indignation 
whatever,  because  there  are  so  many  who  share  in  it,  and  keep  it  in 
countenance.  When  a  congregation,  who  might  easily  do  three  times 
more,  give  less  than  £50  to  the  General  Fund,  and  yet  without  re- 
morse would  take  out  £120  for  the  maintenance  of  their  minister, 
there  is  readiness  enough,  we  admit,  to  call  out  shameful ;  but  the 
shame  of  it  is  not  really  felt,  or  at  least  not  so  felt  as  to  be  of  practical 
operation,  as  the  very  existence  of  318  such  congregations  in  the  Free 
Church  iuost  abundantly  testifies.  The  law  of  getting  as  they  give 
supplies  the  very  stimulus  that  is  obviously  a- wanting ;  and  which,  if 
not  supplied,  will  perpetuate  such  a  drag  upon  the  Church  as  shall 
both  restrain,  or  rather  wholly  arrest  its  progress,  and  keep  down  the 
general  circumstances  of  the  whole  body. 

"  We  would  not  have  dwelt  so  long  on  the  subject  of  this  note,  but 
for  our  apprehension  of  its  being  the  very  subject  on  which  the  Free 
Church  is  likeliest  to  go  wrong.  And  should  the  apprehension  be 
verified,  then  must  we  abandon  our  fondly  cherished  hope  of  its  ever 
attaining  to  the  magnitude  of  a  national  institute,  or  of  its  ever  reach- 
ing farther  than  by  a  very  little  way  among  our  yet  unprovided  fam- 
ilies. The  loss  of  importance  to  it  is  comparatively  a  bagatelle ;  but 
it  is  no  bagatelle  that  we  should  adopt  a  system  which  limits  and  dis- 
ables us  as  a  Home  Mission,  and  so  confines  that  gospel  within  a  nar- 
rower territory,  the  blessed  calls  and  overtures  of  which  might,  under 
another  economy,  be  brought  to  every  poor  man's  hovel,  to  every  cot- 
tage door.  .   .  . 


APPENDIX.  555 


"  Before  quitting  the  subject  of  this  article,  let  me  state  as  minutely  as 
I  can  the  respective  influences  for  good  and  for  evil — first,  of  the  system 
under  which  each  locality  receives  as  it  gives  ;  and,  secondly,  of  the 
system  under  which  there  is  placed  full  before  the  view  of  each  locality 
from  the  outset,  the  share  that  will  fall  to  it,  when  once  admitted 
among  the  ordained  charges,  of  a  prospective  tmiversal  equal  dividend. 

"  1st.  Let  the  locality  in  question  be  some  plebeian  district  of  a  large 
town,  or  some  recent  manufacturing  village,  chiefly  made  up  of  utter 
aliens  from  the  gospel — there,  with  the  exception  of  school-fees,  little 
or  nothing  can  be  expected,  at  the  outset,  from  the  co-operation  of 
their  own  payments.  The  necessary  advances  will  have  to  be  made, 
in  the  first  instance,  by  a  voluntaryism  ab  extra,  though  it  need  not  be 
long  ere  that  the  voluntaryism  ab  intra  is  brought  into  action.  This, 
indeed,  may  begin  so  soon  as  a  Sabbath  service  is  instituted,  with  the 
customary  oflTerings  at  the  door ;  but  the  great  and  decisive  epoch  of 
its  operations  is,  when,  after  a  sufficient  nucleus  has  been  obtained  for 
the  future  regular  congregation,  a  District  Association  is  set  up  foi 
weekly  contributions,  and  these  placed  in  the  custody  and  for  the  pur- 
poses specified  in  the  body  of  our  pamphlet.  The  Association  has  only 
to  be  well  worked,  and  it  will  do  wonders.  The  wholesome  habit  of 
lending  a  helping  hand  themselves  to  the  good  work  will  take  root 
among  the  families.  Themselves  will  be  astonished  to  find  how  much 
they  can  do  for  the  payment  first,  it  may  be,  of  their  own  catechist, 
then  of  their  own  probationer,  nay,  toward  the  erection  of  their  own 
church — last  of  all,  for  the  support  of  their  own  minister ;  and  they 
ought  to  be  provided  with  one  so  soon  as  they  can  raise  two-thirds  of 
£100  a  year.  But  they  need  not  stop  there.  So  great  is  our  faith  in 
the  capabilities  and  willingness  of  our  people  under  such  a  process 
as  we  are  now  describing,  that  it  were  no  marvel  to  us  though  they 
should  raise  the  whole  £100  themselves,  so  as  to  obtain  for  their  min- 
ister, at  our  present  rate  of  one  and  a  half  more,  £150  a  year,  and 
yield  him  a  good  supplement  to  the  bargain.  With  what  delight  would 
our  aid-giving  Associations  push  forward  their  liberalities,  if  sure  that, 
for  every  £50  additional  to  their  present  annual  contribution,  they 
gained  a  distinct  parochial  economy  among  our  former  out-field  popu- 
lation. Church  extension  would  proceed  with  rapid  strides  fi'om  one 
territory  to  another,  under  such  a  procedure  as  this,  till  all  the  spirit- 
ual destitution  of  our  land  were  at  length  overtaken. 

"  2d.  But  try  the  other  way  of  it,  and  as  yet  we  have  been  doing 
little  better  with  our  out-field  operations.  Let  the  people  among  whom 
we  work  be  confirmed  in  their  sordidness  and  lethargy  by  the  imagina- 
tion that  all  is  to  be  done  for  them,  and  that  little  or  nothing  is  expected 
from  themselves.  Let  the  rudimental  education,  under  which  they  are 
made  to  pass,  be  one  of  selfishness,  instead  of  considerate  regard  for 
the  necessities  of  a  Church  that  has  to  provide  for  other  places  and 


556  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 


other  people  beside  their  own.  Above  all,  let  the  prospect  of  an  equal 
dividend  be  held  out  to  vitiate  both  the  parties  concerned — luUinjr  the 
people  into  apathy,  and,  perhaps,  tainting,  by  a  most  unworthy  motive, 
the  heart  of  him  whose  predominant  impulse  to  his  M'ork,  as  an  eccle- 
siastical laborer,  should  be  an  affection  for  human  souls.  Last  of  all, 
let  it  be  found,  when  the  measure  of  its  full  admission  as  a  regular 
charge  comes  to  be  agitated,  that  it  can  not  be  done  but  at  the  ex- 
pense of  nearly  its  whole  up-keeping  to  the  General  Fund  of  the 
Church  :  and  then  we  may  well  imagine,  with  the  indisposition  of 
aid-givers  to  do  all  if  aid-receivers  are  to  do  nothing,  with  what  slow- 
ness Church  extension  will  proceed,  or  rather,  with  what  certainty  it 
will  soon  be  brought  to  a  dead  stand.  A  process  so  impure  in  its 
earlier  stage,  and  landing  in  such  a  burdensome  result,  neither  will 
nor  should  go  prosperously  forward.  And  yet,  .such  is  the  mistiness 
and  confusion  of  ideas  upon  this  subject,  that  people  will  ask,  How 
can  extension  go  on  without  the  encouragement  of  an  equal  dividend  ? 
With  the  encouragement  of  the  one-and-a-half  more  we  can  make 
way ;  but  with  the  equal  dividend  we  shall  never  make  way,  at  least 
throughout  the  dense  and,  as  yet,  unexplored  masses  of  our  increasing 
towns  and  newly-sprung-np  villages.  A  wedge  is  employed  for  penetra- 
tion ;  but  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world,  though  not  greater 
than  the  difl^erence  between  the  two  methods  which  we  are  now 
comparing,  whether  we  shall  present  the  fine  or  the  blunt  edge  of  it." 

APPENDIX,  F.— P.  390. 

"  The  person  who  hands  in  this  slip  of  paper  wants  to  explain  by 
it  the  purpose  of  his  future  calls  on  this  family,  and  on  a  few  of  their 
next-door  neighbors. 

"  His  main  reason,  and  what  he  chiefly  seeks  after,  is  the  good  of 
their  never-dying  souls.  He  deeply  feels  the  obligation  which  lies 
upon  those  who  have  been  most  favored  by  the  light  and  opportunities 
of  the  Gospel  to  do  all  that  in  them  lies,  that  these  precious  blessings 
may  be  extended  to  the  less  fortunate  and  less  favored  of  their  breth- 
ren. It  is  his  clear  and  strong  conviction  that  the  various  classes  of 
people  in  this  city — the  rich  and  the  poor — the  educated  and  the 
uneducated — they  who  live  at  ease,  and  they  w^ho  live  in  the  midst  of 
difficulties,  or  on  the  earnings  of  hard  and  honest  labor — have  hitherto 
kept  at  far  too  great  a  distance  from  each  other,  and  that  there  ought 
to  be  a  vast  deal  more  of  intercourse  and  of  mutual  kindness  betwixt 
them.  It  is  on  this  account  that  he  wants  to  become  the  acquaintance, 
and,  if  they  will  allow  him,  to  be  a  frequent  visitor  of  the  households 
in  that  little  district,  on  w^hich  he  means  to  bestow  such  attentions 
and  such  services  as  he  is  able  to  afford ;  and  should  there  be  any 
opening  to  real  usefulness  in  the  midst  of  them,  so  that  he  may  be  the 


APPENDIX.  557 


instrument  of  good,  and  more  especially  of  moral  and  spiritual  good 
to  any  of  the  inmates,  he  will  bless  God  and  rejoice. 

"  What  he  and  those  who  go  along  with  him  in  this  undertaking 
are  most  intent  upon,  is  the  sound,  and  thorough,  and  withal  Christian 
education  of  your  families.  This  of  all  other  objects  is  that  which  their 
hearts  are  most  set  upon.  Next  to  the  salvation  of  their  own  souls, 
they  would  like  parents  to  have  the  comfort,  the  great  and  unspeak- 
able comfort,  of  thriving,  and  well-brought  up,  and  well-conditioned 
children  ;  and  so  convinced  are  they  of  the  vast  importance  that  you 
should  be  regularly  served  with  good  lessons  on  the  Sabbath,  and  they, 
your  sons  and  daughters,  should  be  regularly  served  with  good  daily 
lessons  through  the  week,  that  they  have  resolved  to  keep  by  this 
neighborhood,  and  never  to  let  go  their  hold  of  it,  till  they  see  a  church 
raised  in  the  midst  of  it  for  the  special  behoof  of  its  families — and 
schools,  where  a  right  and  requisite  learning  is  to  be  had  for  the 
whole,  if  they  choose  it,  of  the  young  and  rising  generation. 

"  We  are  aware  that  some  of  you  are  already  served  both  with 
Sabbath  and  week-day  instructions.  We  have  no  wish  to  intrude  on 
these,  or  to  offer  them  any  disturbance.  We  do  not  want  to  draw 
such  away,  either  from  the  ministers  who  declare  to  them  the  words 
of  eternal  life,  or  from  the  teachers  who  supply  them  with  a  sound 
ant]  good  scholarship.  Our  main  object  is  the  Christian  and  educa- 
tional good,  not  of  those  who  do  not  require  the  accommodation  that 
we  offer,  but  of  the  general  population,  and,  w-e  should  say,  of  the 
working  classes  at  large  in  this  part  of  Edinburgh.  Our  object  is  in 
no  shape  an  exclusive  or  a  sectarian  one.  But  we  have  great  confi- 
dence in  the  power  of  Christian  truth  when  brought  closely  and  effec- 
tually home  to  the  consciences  of  men  ;  and  our  main  design  is  there- 
with to  elevate  the  moral,  and  the  intellectual,  and  above  all,  the 
spiritual  condition  of  the  very  humblest  in  the  scale  of  society.  In  the 
prosecution  of  this  work,  we  confidently  look  for  encouragement  and 
good-will  even  from  those  in  this  locality  who  do  not  stand  in  need  of 
any  services  at  our  hand,  yet  who,  for  the  sake  of  their  own  neighbor- 
hood and  their  own  neighbors,  will  bid  us  God-speed,  nay,  perhaps, 
will  help  us  forward  on  this  errand  of  charity.  We  shall,  therefore, 
cherish  the  hope  of  co-operation  and  aid  from  the  residenters  of  this 
place  in  the  walk  on  which  we  now  enter — an  aid  the  nature  and 
design  of  which  we  shall  afterward  have  occasion  to  explain  to  them. 
Meanwhile,  it  is  our  prayer  that  God  may  showier  down  His  grace  on 
your  households  and  families.  INIay  He  prosper  the  ministrations  of 
the  Gospel  to  your  eternal  well-being.  May  the  promises  of  the  life 
that  now  is,  as  well  as  of  the  life  that  is  to  come,  be  abundantly  real- 
ized upon  you.  '  The  Lord  bless  you  and  keep  you  ;  the  Lord  make 
His  face  to  shine  upon  you  and  be  gracious  unto  you  :  the  Lord  lift 
His  countenance  upon  you  and  give  you  peace.'  " 


558 


MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 


APPENDIX,  G.— P.  407. 

Income  of  Dr.  Chalmerses  Territorial  Church,  West  Port,  for  the  Year 
ending  March,  1852. 

1.  On  hand £23  2  8h 

2.  Minister's  Sustentation 107  4  7 

3.  Schoolmaster's      do 6  7  1 

4.  Ordinary  Church-door  Collections 85  15  7| 

5.  Seat  Offerings 41  4  6" 

6.  Extraordinary  Collections — Church  Schemes 24  11  10 

7.  Do.  do.  Library.  Local  Manse 
Fund,  Royal  Infirmary,  Irish  Mission,   Sabbath 

Schools,  and  Juvenile  Missionary  Association  . .          6  16  8^ 

Ordinary  Income  for  the  year. . . .  £295  3  0^ 

8.  Subscriptions  for  Erecting  a  Front  Gallery 10117  0 

Total  Income £397  0  0^ 


Expenditure  for  the  Year  ending  March  18,  1852. 

1.  By  Balance  paid  over  to  General  Treasurer £ 

2.  Minister's  Stipend 

3.  Psalmody 

4.  Officer,  and  Cleaning 

5.  Gas,  Coals,  &c 

6.  Feu,  Water-duty,  and  Fire  Insurance 

7.  Printing  and  Advertisements 

8.  Church  and  School  Repairs 

9.  Library  and  Incidental  Expenses 

10.  Presbytery,  Synod,  and  Assembly  Expenses 

1 1 .  Monthly  Statements 

12.  Royal  Infirmary 

13.  Teachers,    Treat   to     Scholars,    Ex- 

amination Expenses £22     2   11^ 

Loss  on  Books  during  last  four  years, 

paid  to  Mr.  Foulis ,    17     3     9 


23 

2 

8. 

25 

0 

0 

10 

0 

0 

10 

11 

4 

12 

16 

4 

8 

n 

8 

7 

7 

9 

6 

10 

11 

5 

19 

8. 

2 

12 

6 

2 

14 

0 

1 

5 

0 

14.  Sustentation  Fund,  as  per  vouchers. 

1 5.  Schoolmaster's  Fund 

16.  Schemes 


39  6 

107  4 

6  7 

24  11 


Carry  forward £294     2      1 , 


APPENDIX. 


559 


Brought  forward £294     2 


17.  Other  extra  Schemes 6   16     8 

18.  On  hand  for  Gallery   101   17     0 


Deduct  Income 


£402   15  10 
397     0     01 


Balance  against  Treasurer £5   15     9| 


Income  for  Tivo  preceding  Years. 


1.  Minister's  Sasten.Fund. 

2.  Schoolmaster's      do. 

3.  Ordin.  Church-doov  Co). 

4.  Seat  Offerings 

5.  Extra Collec,  Schemes. 


March,  1851. 


£      s. 

107  16 

5  13 

80  13 

40    4 


19  10  10 


March,  1852. 


■£      s. 

107     4 

6     7 

85  15 

41     4 


24  11  10 


Increase. 

£ 

s. 

d. 

0 

0 

0 

0 

13 

4 

5 

2 

4 

1 

0 

3 

5 

1 

0 

Decrease. 

£  s.  d. 

0  115 

0  0  0 

0  0  0 

0  0  0 

0  0  0 


Increase  on  five  above  items 


11  16  11 

0  115 


11     5    6 


Total  Income  for  1 851 279  7  1-5- 

1852 !!!.'!.'!.'!  295  3  0| 

Total  increase  on  last  year £15  15  11 

To  which  fall  to  be  added  Subscriptions  for  Gallery. 


APPENDIX,  H.— P.  436. 

"Allars,  Jedburgh,  January.,  1850. 

*'  My  dear  Sir — I  have  not  forgotten  my  promise  made  to  you  so 
long  ago,  to  recall  my  impressions  of  the  visit  of  Dr.  Chalmers  'to  this 
place  in  the  summer  of  1846.  But  several  attempts  to  fulfill  it  have 
convinced  me  how  difficult,  or  rather  impossible  it  is,  at  this  distance 
of  time  to  do  any  thing  more  than  put  you  in  possession  of  some  prom- 
inent particulars  characteristic  of  his  state  of  mind  at  that  period. 

"  It  would  be  quite  needless,  nay,  presumptuous,  in  me  to  say  any 
thing  of  his  intellectual  being,  as  it  displayed  itself  among  us,  or  of  the 
general  features  of  his  character.  Even  were  I  capable  of  entering 
on  such  a  department,  it  would  be  unnecessary,  as  before  you  reach 


560  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

that  portion  of  his  history,  the  grand  characteristics  of  both  his  mind 
and  heart  must  have  been  fully  developed.  I  may  only  say  in  general, 
before  passing  to  a  point,  which  the  circumstances  in  which  he  was 
placed  while  with  us  were  peculiarly  adapted  to  exhibit,  that  being 
the  first  time  on  which  I  had  the  opportunity  of  close  and  intimate 
intercourse  with  him.  What  struck  me  most  in  his  deportment,  was 
the  patriarchal  simplicity  and  parental  benignity  of  character  which 
every  thing  he  did  and  said  so  beautifully  displayed.  You  are  aware 
he  was  the  guest  of  the  daughter  of  one  of  his  oldest  and  most  ven- 
erated friends,  before  whose  portrait,  I  may  mention  in  passing,  he 
detained  me  one  day  when  the  rest  of  the  party  had  gone  into  the 
drawing-room,  and  in  language  and  with  s\'mptoms  of  emotions  I  can 
never  forget,  spoke  of  the  '  inexpressible  veneration'  he  entertained  for 
the  memory  of  that  woman.  Surrounded  by  the  family  of  such  a  per- 
son— sun-ounded  also  by  several  of  his  old  students,  now  ministers  in 
the  neighborhood  whom  I  asked  to  meet  him,  the  features  of  his  char- 
acter, which  I  have  just  mentioned,  came  out  in  high  relief.  The 
genial  and  kindly  interest  he  took  in  every  one — the  delicate  atten- 
tions he  paid  to  all,  even  to  the  youngest  child  around  him — the  happy- 
heartedncss  he  so  obviously  felt  in  the  prosperity  of  the  young  minis- 
ters, as  he  drew  them  out  to  state  the  circumstances  in  which  they 
were  placed,  and  the  modesty  and  kindliness  with  which  he  dropped 
a  word  of  advice  or  of  encouragement  to  them,  formed  altogether  one 
of  the  loveliest  moral  pictures  I  ever  beheld. 

"  But  to  pass  from  the  general  featui'es  of  character,  what  to  me 
was  especially  worthy  of  note  was  the  spiritual  light  in  which  he 
presented  himself.  At  one  of  our  private  preliminary  meetings,  before 
the  famous  Assembl}^,  1846,  at  which  he  presided,  I  had  heard  him 
lament,  that  somehow  or  other,  the  circumstances  in  which  he  had 
been  placed  had  always  kept  him  in  'the  outer  Court  of  the  Temple,' 
and  that  the  inner  and  more  spiritual  sphere,  he  had  rather  looked 
forward  to.  as  a  land  of  Beulah  in  the  distance,  than  actually  attained 
to  and  enjoyed.  Whether  this  was  the  confession  of  mere  humility 
alone,  I  have  no  means  of  knowing.  But  I  will  say,  that  of  all  the 
individuals,  whether  ministers  or  private  Christians,  who  have  been 
here  since  there  was  a  little  quickening  by  the  Spirit  of  God  among 
this  people.  Dr.  Chalmers  showed  by  far  the  deepest  interest  in  the 
spiritual  history  and  state  of  the  people.  It  formed  the  staple  of  our 
discourse  during  the  two  happy  days  we  spent  together.  He  asked 
me  to  recount  to  him  all  the  prominent  cases  of  conversion  which  had 
come  under  my  notice,  and  never  seemed  weary  in  listening  to  such 
details  as  I  could  give  him.  Often  and  often  would  he  break  in  on 
the  little  narratives  with  expressions  of  the  highest  delight,  saying  it 
had  been  his  life-long  wish  to  breathe  jn  a  spiritual  atmosphere,  and 
that  it  was  a  kind  of  heaven  upon  earth  lo  do  so.      Even  before  we 


APPENDIX.  561 


left  the  pulpit  on  the  Sabbath  when  he  preached  for  me,  he  remarked 
what  a  delifjht  he  had  felt  in  preaching  to  and  worshiping  with  a 
people  who  had  so  much  of  the  simple,  solemn  spirit  of  Christianity 
in  their  aspect ;  it  M'as  so  different  from  the  pressure,  and  bustle,  and 
stare  he  had  been  so  much  accustomed  to,  and  which  was  often  so 
alien  from  true  worship.  I  don't  know  how  many  persons  he  pointed 
out  with  whose  countenances  he  had  been  arrested,  and  with  whose 
history  he  begged  to  be  made  acquainted.  With  one  of  these  persons 
he  seemed  to  be  especially  taken,  whose  eye  had  never  been  removed 
from  him  for  a  single  moment,  and  who  remained  riveted  to  her  seat 
till  every  other  member  of  the  congregation  had  left  the  place.  When 
informed  that  she  was  a  kind  of  poor  Joseph,  whose  mind  was  weak 
upon  all  points  but  that  of  religion,  his  interest  in  her  was  still  more 
deepened.  And  after  I  told  him  how,  when  the  news  of  the  Disrup- 
tion reached  the  place,  she  had  gone  into  a  neighbor's  house,  and  with 
a  face  beaming  with  delight,  had  said,  '  Have  you  heard  the  good 
news?  man  is  to  have  no  more  rule  in  Christ's  house  !  we  are  to  have 
no  other  master  now  but  Himself!'  he  dwelt  on  it  at  the  time,  and 
afterward  in  our  subsequent  intercourse  often  reverted  to  it  as  one  of 
the  happiest  sayings  elicited  by  our  controversy,  adding,  it  was  one  of 
the  many  proofs  that,  while  the  prominent  points  of  our  controversy 
could  by  no  act  be  made  to  penetrate  the  higher  intellects  in  the  land, 
they  seemed  to  be  instinctively  and  intuitively  seized  by  those,  who, 
thouijh  simple,  were  taught  by  the  Spirit  of  God. 

"It  was  by  his  own  request  that,  after  we  had  seen  the  few  anti- 
quarian curiosities  in  the  place,  we  spent  the  rest  of  the  day  following 
in  visiting  as  many  of  the  people  as  possible  who  had  lately,  to  all 
appearance,  undergone  a  saving  change  of  character.  It  was,  unfor- 
tunately, at  the  season  when  their  employments  took  them  from  home 
to  the  surrounding  country ;  and,  as  I  was  not  to  intimate  our  purpose, 
but  to  take  them  in  their  usual  guise  and  occupations,  it  was  some- 
what difficult  to  accomplish  our  object.  You  can  easily  imagine  also, 
that  knowing  by  report,  and  from  hearing  him  on  the  preceding  day, 
who  the  illustrious  visitor  was,  the  people  in  general  were  more  dis- 
posed to  listen  than  to  speak.  And  what  still  further  increased  the 
difficulty  of  letting  him  see  their  every-day  and  spiritual  being,  was 
the  circumstance,  that  on  its  being  known  that  he  was  in  any  house, 
neighbors  of  a  religious  character  at  least  dropped  in,  whose  presence 
somewhat  damped  the  freedom  of  communication  on  Christian  experi- 
mental subjects.  Notwithstanding  all  these  obstacles,  however,  we 
saw  a  considerable  number  of  recent  converts  to  more  or  less  advant- 
age ;  and  I  may  especially  note  one  house  with  the  group  that  assem- 
bfed,  in  which  he  seemed  especially  taken,  as  I  knew  the  people  them- 
selves were  struck  by  the  singular  outpouring  in  prayer  with  which 
of  his  own  accord  he  closed  the  interview.   The  plan  was,  I  was  quietly 


562  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

and  incidentally  to  draw  the  people  into  conversation,  which  might 
show  the  inner  beinfr  without  their  being  aware  of  the  purpose,  while 
he  was  simply  to  listen.  It  happened  fortunately  in  the  case  referred 
to,  that  I  got  next  a  woman  whose  impressions  of  divine  things  were 
but  recent ;  whose  impressions  also,  both  of  sorrow  and  joy  had  been 
so  deep,  that  she  had  found  it  nearly  impossible  to  confine  either  to 
her  own  breast,  and  who  was  by  this  time  laboring  under  that  disease 
which  a  short  while  afterward  transmitted  her  spirit  to  glory,  and 
which  even  then  may  have  given  her  such  a  presentiment  of  her 
approaching  end  as  to  make  her  more  free  and  communicative  than 
others  would  have  been.  She  accordingly,  with  great  modesty  and 
interest,  in  her  own  homely  way,  recounted,  in  answer  to  the  questions 
my  knowledge  of  her  previous  history  enabled  me  to  put  to  her,  the 
leading  points  of  her  change — her  awakening  to  a  sense  of  her  lost 
condition,  and  the  method  in  which  God  had  brought  hor  to  a  state  of 
peace  and  joy  in  believing.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  scene  which 
presented  itself,  when,  near  the  close  of  this  narrative,  I  turned  round 
my  eye  to  see  its  effect  on  our  venerable  father.  The  whole  scene 
was  such  as  a  painter  would  have  liked  to  perpetuate.  There  were 
two  beds  running  along  one  side  of  the  apartment,  on  the  edge  of 
which  so  many  as  ten  or  a  dozen  of  persons  had,  since  the  interview 
began,  ranged  themselves,  including  one  of  our  humble  elders,  and 
several  individuals,  who,  during  the  two  or  three  previous  years  had 
been  turned  from  darkness  to  light.  The  countenances  of  several  of 
these,  as  they  were  lighted  up  with  Christian  sympathy — one  more 
especially,  whose  foreign  and  gipsy-like  features,  and  fine  black  eyes, 
swimming  all  the  time  in  tears,  greatly  arrested  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  he 
afterward  told  me.  But  he  himself  was  the  most  interesting  object 
of  all.  The  figure  he  presented  was  not  a  little  grotesque,  but  pro- 
foundly afTecting.  He  had  seated  himself  in  a  corner  of  the  apart- 
ment, facing  the  above  and  along  side,  but  rather  behind  the  woman 
and  me.  The  person  in  whose  house  we  were  had  been  baking  bread 
before  we  entered,  and  the  table,  at  the  end  of  which  he  had  placed 
himself,  was  covered  with  meal.  Not  observing  this,  he  had  placed 
one  elbow  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  drawing  out  a  drawer  in  an  old 
wardrobe  on  the  other  side,  on  which  to  rest  his  other  elbow,  there  he 
was  sitting  in  this  posture,  with  a  hand  behind  either  ear.  to  catch 
what  was  passing,  and  with  a  countenance  so  inexpressibly  bland  and 
benignant,  on  which  the  interest,  sympathy,  and  delight  of  the  good 
man's  heart  had  cast  quite  a  heavenly  radiance,  as  I  shall  never  forget 
while  I  live.  He  put  several  questions  himself  to  the  elder  above 
referred  to,  as  to  the  former  and  present  state  of  thinjis,  which,  having 
been  long  in  the  place,  he  was  able  to  answer,  and  did  answer  in  a 
way  which  evidently  deepened  the  interest  already  depicted  on  Dr. 
Chalmers's  countenance.     He  then,  as  I  have  mentioned,  of  his  own 


ArPIJiN'DlX.  563 


accord,  engaged  in  prayer  with  and  for  the  little  band  around  him, 
like  a  father,  or  some  of  the  ancient  patriarchs,  commending  them  to 
the  care  and  keeping  of  God  Almighty.  It  was  a  wonderful  outpour- 
ing, full  of  an  unction,  compared  with  which  even  his  eloquence  was 
but  tame.  Indeed,  the  whole  scene  was  one  of  uncommon  interest.  I 
felt  at  the  time,  that  if  circumstances  had  kept  him  in  the  outer  court 
most  of  his  life,  all  the  man's  likings,  his  deepest  affections,  his  whole 
heart  were  within  the  vail.  He  said  to  me  as  we  stepped  out  into 
the  street,  and  he  pressed  my  arm  in  his,  '  That  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  groups  I  ever  beheld.'  And  I  must  say,  that  though  I 
have  seen  him  in  many  positions  of  deepest  interest — in  the  pulpit — 
the  pi-ofessor's  chair — the  chair  of  the  first  Free  Assembly — and  better 
than  ail,  among  his  ragged  children  in  the  West  Port — I  don't  know 
but,  now  that  the  ripened  spirit  is  removed  to  a  more  congenial  world 
than  this,  my  memory  dwells  with  fonder  delight  on  the  picture  of  the 
venerable  man  in  this  humble  cottage,  than  any  where  else  it  has  ever 
been  my  lot  to  see  him.  There  was  more  of  character,  and  of  the 
highest  style  of  character.  Christian  benevolence,  spirituality,  heaven- 
liness,  displayed  in  that  humble  dwelling,  than  any  where  else  I  had 
ever  seen  him. 

"We  spent  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  day  in  thus  visiting  the 
people,  and  I  could  not  but  wonder  at  his  physical  strength,  for  long 
after  I  was  not  a  little  jaded  with  speaking  and  the  sultriness  of  the 
atmosphere  combined,  he  seemed  fresh  and  interested  in  our  work, 
even  as  when  we  began  it.  At  dinner  the  conversation  turned  chiefly 
on  Foster,  whose  '  Memoirs'  had  then  been  recently  published.  He 
expressed,  in  the  strongest  manner,  his  regret  at  the  letter  in  these 
'  Memoirs'  against  the  eternity  of  futui-e  punishments  —  dwelling 
chiefly  on  the  loss  of  practical  power  to  all  the  arguments  in  favor 
of  godliness  which  would  result  from  any  doubt  being  cast  on  the 
tremendous  motive  to  serious  thought  and  holy  action — an  eternity 
of  woe.  He  told  us,  and  with  the  greatest  glee,  his  controversy  with 
Foster,  on  one  of  his  visits  to  England,  as  to  the  value  of  Parliament- 
ary Reform  as  an  element  of  national  improvement.  Foster  was  ex- 
travagant in  his  expectations,  and  Chalmers,  as  usual,  had  dwelt  on 
the  moral  element — the  educational  and  religious  culture  of  the  peo- 
ple as  the  only  lever  to  raise  the  masses.  Shortly  afterward,  an  ac- 
count of  the  Bristol  riots  appeared  in  the  papers,  on  reading  which, 
Chalmers,  as  if  still  in  conversation  with  his  friend,  had  said  to  him- 
self— '  There  !  take  ye  that,  my  friend,  as  a  swatch  of  your  political 
millennium  !'  When,  after  dinner,  we  went  out  to  stroll  about  a  very 
pi-etty,  quiet  orchard  which  surrounds  my  house,  and  with  which  he 
was  greatly  charmed,  an  incident  occurred  which  has  always  seemed 
to  me  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  of  the  strength  of  the  spiritual  ele- 
ment in  his  character.     He  drew  me  aside  from  the  rest  of  the  party, 


564  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

and  after  expressing,  for  I  dare  say  the  twentieth  time,  the  happiness 
of  heart  which  the  state  of  affairs  with  us  had  given  hina,  he  begseJ 
me  to  give  him  an  account  of  my  plan  of  operations  in  the  parish  since 
the  beginning  of  my  incumbency.  The  request  was  rather  a  perplex- 
ing one  to  me,  and  I  remember  well  the  nervous  trepidation  which  I 
felt  when  attempting  to  comply  with  it.  You  are  well  aware  of  the 
stress  which  he  laid  on  household  visitations,  as  a  means  of  ministerial 
usefulness.  He  usually  counted  it  a  sine  qua  non  in  the  ministry  of 
reconciliation.  I  had  on  three  successive  occasions,  acting  chiefly  on 
the  instructions  I  had  received  from  his  lips,  attempted  a  visitation  of 
this  whole  parish,  and  was  as  often  providentially  hindered.  This  cir- 
cumstance had  arrested  my  attention,  and  led  me  to  reconsider  the  pro- 
priety and  wisdom  of  this  line  of  proceeding  in  the  circumstances  in 
which  I  was  placed,  with  but  a  limited  measure  of  physical  strength  at 
my  disposal,  in  a  parish  at  once  populous  and  extending  over  a  very 
wide  district  of  country,  and,  above  all.  succeeding  to  a  long  coarse  of 
ministry,  w.hich  left  me,  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word,  no  flock.  It 
occurred  to  me  in  these  circumstances,  that  my  first  and  most  import- 
ant work  was  not  pastoral,  but  evangelistic  :  and  as  I  found  that,  from 
the  perfect  novelty  of  the  thing,  the  people,  both  in  town  and  country, 
were  disposed  to  come  out  to  sermons  on  the  evening  of  week-days.  I 
from  that  time  forward  devoted  the  bulk  of  my  strength  and  time  to  do 
what  our  Lord  is  said  to  have  done  :  '  He  went  throughout  every  city 
and  village  preaching  and  showing  the  glad  tidings  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.'  Generally  two,  often  three,  sometimes  four  evenings  of  every 
week  were  spent  in  this  way,  and  with  the  greatest  success  as  to 
drawing  out  the  people — many  coming  three  or  four  miles  of  a  sum- 
mer's evening  to  the  school-houses  or  barns  in  which  the  meetings 
w^ere  held.  Of  coui-se,  with  such  an  amount  of  service,  and  in  such  a 
parish,  I  could  undertake  no  other  but  the  sick  visiting,  which,  indeed, 
was  labor  enough  of  itself  in  a  district  where  the  eldership  had  been 
long  obsolete,  and  the  minister  was  the  single  man  on  whose  shoulders 
all  kinds  of  labor  were  laid.  On  principle,  then,  and  with  no  small 
fear  and  trembling,  I  adopted  this  course  and  prosecuted  it,  which  w^as 
a  wide  divergence  from  the  usual  canonical  melhod,  but  which  seemed 
to  be,  in  all  the  circumstances,  the  wisest  and  most  scriptural,  till,  as 
the  result  of  it,  a  real  spiritual  flock  should  be  formed,  among  whom 
pastoral  visits  would  be  apposite  and  profitable.  All  this  I  made  a 
frank  confession  of  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  frank  as  my  timidity  would  allow 
me  to  do.  And  never  shall  I  forget  the  way  in  which  he  received  the 
half-apologetical  statement.  'You  know,'  he  said,  in  substance,  'the 
stress,  the  great  stress  I  lay  on  household  visitings.  In  usual  circum- 
stances, the  shortest  way  to  a  man's  heart  is  to  go  into  his  house. 
Still,  however,  this  is  but  a  means  to  an  end.  The  end  is  lodging  the 
Gospel  in  the  hearts  of  sinners,  and  thus  bringing  them  to  Christ.     If 


APPENDIX.  561 


this  be  gained,  it  matters  not  how.  It  has  been  gained  to  so  great  an 
extent  with  you,  that  you  seem  to  have  a  divine  sanction  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  means.  In  the  circumstances,  you  did  entirely  right — with  the 
result  foreseen,  I  would  have  broken  through  all  old  customs  and  done 
the  same.  The  result  is  every  thing — the  salvation  of  souls  !'  I  felt 
at  the  time,  and  have  often  thought  since,  considering  the  amazing 
tenacity  with  which  he  held  his  favorite  points,  that  the  warmth  and 
cordiality  with  which  he  uttered  these  sentiments  formed  one  of  the 
strongest  testimonials  to  the  power  of  the  spiritual  principle  which, 
often  hidden  from  superficial  observers  by  the  very  apparatus  it  was 
ever  setting  and  keeping  in  motion,  reigned  dominant  in  his  soul.  No 
man  in  our  day,  or  perhaps  in  any  day  since  Luther,  has  more  fully 
and  purely  imbibed  the  spirit  and  essence  of  primitive  Christianity. 
Separating  it  from  all  mere  accessories,  and  means  of  spreading,  and 
modes  of  expressing  it,  the  soul  of  Christianity,  which  is  love,  seemed 
again  embodied  in  his  large  and  congenial  nature. 

''  A  similar  incident  occurred  on  the  evening  of  this  day.  He  had 
begged  me  to  convene  a  meeting  in  our  vestry  or  vestibule  of  as  many 
members  of  the  surrounding  Deacons'  Courts  and  Collectors  as  could 
attend,  that  he  might  address  them  on  his  favorite  scheme — the  Sus- 
tentation  Fund.  He  was  most  rigid  in  excluding  all  others  but  the 
above  classes,  and  no  persuasions  could  induce  him  to  make  it  any 
thing  but  a  quiet  private  meeting.  Yet  when  it  was  opened,  and  he 
had  spoken  but  a  few  prefatory  sentences  on  financial  matters,  he 
turned  round  to  me,  and  with  that  delicacy  which  so  characterized  him, 
asked  if  he  might  address  them  on  another  and  more  spiritual  topic.  He 
then  told  them  that  he  had  no  heart  to  pursue  his  favorite  theme  at  pres- 
ent ;  expressed  the  hearty  gladness  which  he  had  felt  in  the  spiritual 
atmosphere  he  had  been  breathing  during  the  day,  and  in  all  he  had  seen 
and  heard;  after  which  he  broke  out  into  a  most  animated  exhortation  on 
spiritual  matters,  pressing  all  who  were  really  Christians  to  throw  in 
their  separate  mites  to  such  a  blessed  and  holy  cause  as  seemed  to 
be  in  progress  among  them.  I  need  not  tell  you,  who  know  with  what 
ardor  he  had  thrown  his  whole  soul  into  the  great  Financial  Scheme  of 
our  Church,  what  an  act  of  almost  involuntary  homage  his  nature  here 
again  paid  to  the  superiority  of  the  spiritual  element,  and  how  plainly 
the  incident  brings  out  the  fact,  that  behind  the  immense  machinery 
which  all  his  life  long  he  was  either  constructing  or  working,  there  sat 
enthroned  in  his  inner  being  a  high  and  holy  principle  of  life,  which, 
often  itself  unseen,  gave  form  and  action  to  ever}''  thing. 

'■  Before  bringing  my  rambling  reminiscences  to  a  close,  let  me  men- 
tion a  little  circumstance  which  proves  with  what  energy,  even  at  this 
late  day,  the  good  man  was  prosecuting  the  divine  life.  He  was  going 
out  one  morning  for  a  drive,  and  vastly  happy  his  benignant  nature  was 
at  the  thought  of  being  driven  bv  a  voung  student  whom  he  expected 


566  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

ere  long  to  be  under  his  own  care — the  son  of  his  host.  A  large  portly 
octavo  volume  peered  out  from  his  wide-mouthed  great-coat  pocket. 
He  noticed  me  smiling  at  this  somewhat  odd-like  vade-mecum  (or  a 
summer  morning  drive  through  a  beautiful  country,  and  good-naturedly 
extracting  the  old  musty  volume  from  his  pocket,  asked  me  if  I  knew 
the  book.  It  happened  to  be  a  volume  of  Bishop  Patrick's  Comment- 
ary.     Ex  pede  Herculem. 

"I  am  sorry  these  are  all  the  reminiscences  I  can  now  give  you  of  a 
visit  which  left  a  most  happy  and  hallowed  impression  not  only  on  my- 
self and  those  privileged  to  be  in  nearest  contact  with  him,  but,  I  may 
say,  on  the  whole  place — the  benignity  and  goodness  of  the  man  eclips- 
ing even  his  greatness,  and  leaving  such  an  odor  behind  as  made  one 
feel  '  'twas  even  as  if  an  angel  shook  his  wings.' 

"With  every  wish  and  prayer  for  the  successful  accomplishment  of 
your  truly  great  work,  a  fitting  memorial  of  such  a  man,  believe  me 
ever,  my  dear  sir,  very  truly  yours,  John  Purves." 

APPENDIX,   I.— P.  444. 

At  the  request  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smyth,  of  Charleston,  Dr.  Chalmers 
addressed  to  him  the  following  letter : 

"  Edinburgh,  25^A  September,  1844. 

"  My  deap.  Sir — I  do  not  need  to  assure  you  how  little  1  sympa- 
thize with  those  who — because  slavery  happens  to  prevail  in  the  South- 
ern States  of  America — would  unchristianize  that  whole  region ;  and 
who  even  carry  their  extravagance  so  far  as  to  affirm  that,  so  long  as 
it  subsists,  no  fellowship  or  interchange  of  good  offices  should  take 
place  with  its  churches,  or  its  ministers. 

"  As  a  friend  to  the  universal  virtue  and  liberty  of  mankind,  I  re- 
joice in  the  prospect  of  those  days  when  slavery  shall  be  banished 
from  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  but,  most  assuredly,  the  wholesale  style 
of  excommunication,  contended  for  by  some,  is  not  the  way  to  hasten 
forward  this  blissful  consummation. 

"Few  things  would  afford  me  greater  satisfaction  than  to  hear  of  a 
commencement  in  your  country  of  that  process  by  which  the  labor  of 
freemen  might  be  substituted  for  that  of  slaves.  As  I  mentioned  to 
you.  I  was  exceedingly  struck,  so  far  back  as  twenty-five  years  ago, 
by  the  description  of  such  a  process  in  Humboldt's  Travels  through 
Spanish  South  America,  This  was  long  anterior  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  British  Colonies:  and  such  was  the  confidence  I  then 
felt  in  its  efficacy,  that  I  ventured  to  draw  out  a  sketch  of  the  Spanish 
plan,  which,  if  adopted  at  the  time,  might  have  insured  a  far  safer  and 
even  earlier  emancipation  than  took  place  afterward.  You  will  find 
my  account  of  it  in  the  twelfth  volume  of  my  works,  from  page  395 
and  onward. 


APPENDIX.  567 

"I  have  not  been  able  to  engage  in  any  sort  of  public  business  since 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  with  you ;  but  I  observe  that  in  our  As- 
sembly's Commission,  a  few  weeks  back,  the  subject  of  American 
slavery  was  entertained.  I  do  hope  that  the  resolutions  which  they 
have  adopted  will  prove  satisfactory. 

"I  ieel  it  a  great  acquisition  that  I  have  made  your  acquaintance. 
We  owe  you  much,  and  I  trust  the  ministers  of  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland  will  ever  entertain  a  grateful  sense  of  your  able  and  disinter- 
ested services.  Do  believe  me,  my  dear  sir,  yours  most  respectfullv 
and  truly,  Thomas  Chalmers." 

The  publication  of  this  letter  led  to  a  demand  upon  Dr.  Chalmers  by 
the  Anti-Slavery  Society  of  Edinburgh  of  a  disclaimer  or  explanation 
of  the  sentiments  which  it  expressed  ;  in  consequence  of  which  he  pub- 
lished the  following  letter  in  the  "  Witness''  newspaper: 

"  MoRNiNGsiDE,  12th  Matj,  1845. 

"  My  dear  Sir — You  will  recollect  that  some  months  ago,  there 
were  communications  held  with  you  on  the  subject  of  American  slave- 
ry, and.that  in  these  there  was  the  challenge  or  crimination,  of  myself, 
as  having  given  forth  a  most  inadequate  deliverance  on  the  evils  of  the 
system.  At  that  time  I  looked  forward  to  the  opportunity  of  sharing 
in  the  discussion  which  this  question  will  probably  give  rise  to  at  the 
next  meeting  of  our  General  Assembly.  But  as  that  expectation  will 
not  now  be  realized,  I  have  to  crave  your  permission  for  coming  for- 
ward with  a  very  brief  and  general  exposition  of  my  views,  in  the  col- 
umns of  your  newspaper. 

"1.  Slavery,  like  war,  is  a  great  evil;  and  there  is  no  philanthropist, 
who  bears  an  enlightened  regard  either  to  the  virtue  or  happiness  of 
our  species,  but  must  desire  the  final  abolition  of  them  from  the  face 
of  the  earth,  and  must  also  feel  it  his  duty  to  support  the  best  and 
likeliest  measures  for  speeding  onward  so  blissful  a  consummation. 
Yet,  destructive  and  demoralizing  as  both  are,  inimical  as  Christianity 
is  to  all  violence,  and  to  all  vice,  it  follows  not  that  there  may  not  be  a 
Christian  soldier,  and  neither  does  it  follow  that  there  may  not  be  a 
Christian  slaveholder.  Let  the  moral  atmosphere  of  both  be  as  un- 
friendly as  they  may  to  the  growth  either  of  religion  or  of  humanity, 
still  it  holds  experimentally  true,  that  within  the  limits  of  the  delete- 
rious influence,  and  not  of  course  by  the  influence,  but  in  spite  of  it, 
the  most  exalted  specimens  of  piety  and  worth  are  to  be  found.  The 
Colonel  Gardiner  of  Scotland,  and  the  Mr.  Macdonough  of  America,  are 
not  the  singular,  and  we  should  hope,  not  the  rare  instances  of  either 
kind  ;  and  they  demonstrate,  that  vitiating  as  each  of  these  systems  is, 
and  prolific  of  the  most  frightful  and  revolting  atrocities  that  have  ever 
disfigured  the  sad  history  of  our  race,  yet  that  neither  is  incompatible 


568  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

with  the  personal  Christianity  of  those  who  have  actually  and  person- 
ally to  do  with  them.  This  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the  fact,  that 
all  the  tendencies  of  the  Christian  religion  are  opposed  to  war,  and 
opposed  to  slavery,  insomuch  that  the  days  of  universal  Christianity 
will  be  days  of  universal  peace,  and  days  of  universal  and  equal  liberty 
for  all  men. 

"  2.  Distinction  ought  to  be  made  between  the  character  of  a  system, 
and  the  character  of  the  persons  whom  circumstances  have  implicated 
therewith  ;  nor  would  it  always  be  just,  if  all  the  recoil,  and  all  the 
horror,  wherewith  the  former  is  contemplated,  were  visited  in  the  form 
of  condemnation,  or  of  moral  indignancy,  upon  the  latter.  Slavery  we 
hold  to  be  a  system  chargeable  with  atrocities  and  evils,  often  the  most 
hideous  and  the  most  appalling  which  have  either  afflicted  or  deformed 
our  species.  Yet  we  must  not  therefore  say  of  every  man  who  has 
been  born  within  the  confines  of  a  territory  accursed  by  its  presence — 
who  has  grown  up  and  become  familiar  with  its  sickening  spectacles 
— who  not  only  by  habit  has  been  inured  to  such  tranactions,  and  such 
sights,  as  would  sicken  the  heart  of  a  stranger  that  for  the  first  time 
had  entered  upon  a  region  of  slavery,  but  who  by  inheritance  is  him- 
self the  owner  of  slaves — we  are  not  to  say  of  him,  that  unless,  by  an 
act  of  violence  on  all  those  possessory  and  proprietary  feelings  which 
exist  in  such  strength  within  every  bosom,  he  make  the  resolute  sacri- 
fice of  these,  and,  renouncing  his  property  in  slaves,  renounce  the  all 
which  belongs  to  him — we  are  not  to  say  that,  unless  this  surrender  is 
made,  he  therefore  is  not  a  Christian,  and  should  be  treated  as  an  out- 
cast from  all  the  distinctions  or  the  privileges  of  a  Christian  society. 
The  truth  is,  that,  according  to  all  the  laws  and  the  likelihoods  of 
human  nature,  the  very  men  who  are  now  looking  at  the  object  ab 
extra,  and  in  the  character,  it  may  be,  of  zealous  Abolitionists,  would, 
if  placed  from  infancy  in  the  condition,  and  exposed  through  life  to  all 
the  besetting  influences  which  operate  on  the  mind  of  the  slaveholder, 
have  been  those  very  slaveholders  themselves — the  whole  system  of 
whose  social  economy  they  do  well  in  denouncing,  and  in  laboring  to 
extirpate  from  the  face  of  the  earth; — yet,  would  they  often  sin,  not- 
withstanding, both  against  truth  and  charity,  if,  by  a  sweeping  and 
universal  charge,  they  were  to  denounce  all  who  partake  of  this  system, 
nay,  live  upon  the  profits  of  it,  as  individually  void  of  humanity  and 
honor,  or  void  of  Christian  principle.  There  are  various  methods — 
various  lines  of  procedure  and  policy,  on  which  philanthropists  and 
patriots  might  enter,  and  join  their  forces  for  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
The  most  unjustifiable — and,  let  me  add,  the  most  unwise  and  least 
effectual  of  these,  were  to  pronounce  a  wholesale  anathema,  by  which 
to  unchristianize,  or  to  pass  a  general  sentence  of  excommunication 
on  slaveholders. 

"  3.   We  deny  not  the  vitiating  tendency  of  slavery  on  the  hearts  and 


APPENDIX.  569 


the  characters  of  all  who  are  engaged  in  it ;  and  let  us  concede,  that 
in  virtue  of  these,  a  greater  number — if  an  inventory  could  be  taken  of 
them — of  inhuman  and  licentious,  of  barbarous  and  brulalized  men,  are 
to  be  found  in  the  middle  and  upper  classes  of  society,  throughout 
the  slaveholding  States  of  America,  than  throughout  those  other  States 
which  have  so  nobly  rid  themselves  of  this  enormous  evil.  Now,  what 
effect  ought  this  admission  to  have  upon  the  question?  Not  that  slave- 
holding  shall  simply,  and  per  se,  infer  exclusion  from  the  ordinances  of 
the  gospel,  but  that,  as  many  of  the  vices  which  slaveholding  tends  to 
generate  and  to  multiply  infer  this  exclusion,  there  will,  and  because 
of  these  vices,  be  a  more  frequent  call  for  ecclesiastical  discipline  in  the 
slaveholding  congregations.  The  Apostle  tells  us  not  to  keep  com- 
pany— not  to  hold  Christian  fellowship,  if  '  any  man  that  is  called  a 
bi-other  be  a  fox-nicator,  or  covetous,  or  an  idoiator,  or  a  railer,  or  a 
drunkard,  or  an  extortioner.'  Should  any  such,  then,  present  himself 
for  admission  to  the  table  of  the  Lord,  there  is  a  clear  scriptural  war- 
rant for  his  debarment  from  this,  and  all  the  other  privileges  of  Church 
membership ;  not,  however,  on  the  ground  of  his  being  a  slaveholder., 
but  on  the  ground  of  one  or  other  of  those  vices  which  exist,  it  is  to 
be  feared,  in  greatest  force  and  frequency,  wherever  there  exist  the 
habits  and  the  temptations  of  slaveholding.  The  magnitude  of  the 
temptation  can  never  be  held  an  alleviation  of  the  crime,  so  as  to 
exempt  the  slaveholder,  who  has  fallen  into  it,  from  the  proper  and 
the  prescribed  discipline,  else  there  is  an  end  of  all  Christian  morality. 
Far  less  can  the  magnitude  of  the  temptation  to  laxity  of  discipline, 
or  to  pass  over  the  delinquencies  of  a  wealthy  and  influential  slave- 
holder, exempt  any  Christian  Church  from  the  duty  of  an  impartial, 
and  pure,  and  righteous  government  over  all  its  members — else  not 
only  may  that  Chui'ch  present  a  hideous  mass  of  corruption,  but  every 
other  Church  in  Christendom,  which  connives  at  it,  contracts  thereby  a 
blemish  and  a  deformity,  wiiich  must  and  which  ought  to  injure  its 
otherwise  fair  reputation.  Let  every  man,  be  he  a  slaveholder  or  not, 
be  cast  out  from  the  brotherhood  of  the  Christian  ordinances,  who  falls 
into  any  of  the  vices  which  are  here  enumerated ;  and  let  the  brother- 
hood of  every  church  be  disowned  which  is  found  to  tolerate  these 
vices  in  its  members,  be  they  high  or  low.  Nay,  should  it  be  found  in 
any  instance  that  the  wealthy  oppressor  meets  with  an  indulgence 
which  is  not  shown  to  the  humbler  delinquents  of  the  congregation — 
let  the  church  be  all  the  more  indignantly  denounced  as  unworthy  of 
fellowship  or  recognition,  and  its  brotherhood  be  disowned  by  the  other 
Churches  of  Christ.  When  we  have  got  thus  far  into  the  argument, 
we  come  within  sight  of  a  clear  principle — a  comfort  which  we  did 
not  enjoy  so  long  as  the  demand  was  made  upon  us  for  the  excom- 
munication of  all  slaveholders,  or  for  the  wholesale  excommunication 
of  all  Churches  that  were  found  to  have  the  names  of  slaveholders  on 


570  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

the  roll  of  their  communicants.  Our  understanding  of  Chri-stianity  is, 
that  it  deals  not  with  civil  or  political  institutions,  but  that  it  deals  with 
persons  and  with  ecclesiastical  institutions,  and  that  the  object  of  these 
last  is  to  operate  directly  and  proximately  with  the  most  wholesome 
effect  on  the  consciences  and  the  character  of  persons.  In  conformity 
with  this  view,  a  purely  and  rightly  administered  Church  will  exclude 
from  the  ordinances,  not  any  man  as  a  slaveholder,  but  every  man, 
whether  slaveholder  or  not,  as  licentious,  as  intemperate,  as  dishonest. 
Should  any  single  American  Church  be  found  to  have  acted  otherwise, 
let  it,  while  the  imputation  rests  upon  it,  and  it  remains  unreformed, 
be  treated  as  an  outcast  from  all  other  Churches.  Nay,  should  the 
corrupt  proceeding  be  carried  up  by  appeal  to  an  American  Presbytery, 
and  be  sanctioned  or  tolerated  there,  let  all  countenance  and  com- 
munion with  such  a  Presbytery  be  suspended.  Last  of  all,  let  the 
Supreme  Court — The  General  Assembly  of  the  American  Presbyterian 
Church — be  convicted  of  having  passed  a  corrupt  sentence,  which 
carries  in  it  the  principle,  and  brings  along  with  it  the  practice,  of  a 
toleration  for  undoubted  moral  delinquencies — and  then  the  only  cor- 
respondence, we  trust,  which  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  would  con- 
sent to  hold  with  the  Presbyterian  body  of  America,  would  be  that  of 
grave  and  solemn  remonstrance  because  of  the  dishonor  done  by  them 
to  our  common  Lord. 

"4.  We  hope  that  our  Free  Church  will  never  deviate  to  the  right 
or  the  left  from  the  path  of  undoubted  principle.  But  we  hope,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  she  will  not  be  frightened  from  her  propriety,  or 
forced  by  clamor  of  any  sort  to  outrun  her  own  convictions,  so  as  to 
adopt,  at  the  bidding  of  other  parties,  a  new  and  factitious  principle  of 
administration,  for  lohich  she  can  see  no  authority  in  Scripture,  and  of 
which  she  can  gather  no  traces  in  the  history  or  practice  of  the  Churches 
in  Apostolic  times. 

"  Would  the  Abolitionists,  then,  have  their  eye  on  such  cases,  and 
hold  them  forth  in  authentic  exhibition  to  the  world,  so  that  the 
Churches  of  distant  lands  may  be  made  to  know  w-hat  the  laxity  of 
discipline  is  which  obtains  throughout  the  Churches  and  Church  Courts 
of  America.  Let  them  verify  the  instances,  and  tell  us  of  them  in 
detail — what  the  particular  Churches  are  where  men  are  recognized  as 
members,  and  live  in  the  undisturbed  possession  of  church  privileges, 
notwithstanding  their  concubinage,  or  their  cruelty,  or  the  gross  vio- 
lence and  villainy  of  any  sort,  which  might  not  only  be  charged  upon, 
but  have  been  actually  made  good  against  them  ;  and  then  we  shall  know, 
and  in  the  light  of  clearest  scriptural  principle,  how  to  guide  our  pro- 
ceedinffs,  both  with  the  Churches  which  sanction  such  enormities  by 
their  forbearance,  and  with  Church  Courts  which,  by  their  corrupt 
pdicial  sentences,  may  be  well  said  to  frame  these  iniquities  by  a  law. 
This  were  a  far  more  likely  process  whereby  to  augment  the  moral 


APPENDIX.  :n  1 


force  of  that  opposition  to  slavery,  which,  as  one  of  its  most  determined 
and  implacable  enemies,  we  hope  is  growing  and  gathering  every  day 
— not  hy  forcing  upon  us  a  new  principle,  and  requiring  at  our  hands 
an  altogether  neiv  practice,  unknown  to  the  Churches  of  other  days — 
even  that  slaveholding  is  in  itself  that  sort  of  ecclesiastical  felony 
■which  must  be  visited  by  a  sentence  of  exile  for  shorter  or  longer 
pei-iods  from  the  ecclesiastical  community.  There  are  other  felonies 
of  which  we  have  never  doubted — vices  which  ought,  by  the  prece- 
dents of  all  ages,  to  be  thus  dealt  and  proceeded  with  ;  and  if  these 
vices  do  follow  in  the  train  of  slaveholding  with  greater  frequency 
than  in  the  train  of  any  other  occupation,  let  this,  by  the  exercise  of 
a  virtuous  Church  discipline,  be  made  palpable  to  all,  and  another  pow- 
erful blow  will  thus  be  inflicted  on  the  system — another  telling  argu- 
ment be  added  to  the  successive  strokes  of  that  catapulta  which  is  at 
length  to  bring  down  this  monster  evil,  with  all  its  horrors  and  teeming 
abominations.  It  is  thus  that  the  title  of  a  pamphlet,  which  I  lately 
saw,  might  be  reversed  ;  and  the  American  Churches,  instead  of  the 
props, '  as  they  are  represented,  of  American  slavery,  might  be  the 
pioneers  to  undermine  its  foundations,  and  bring  it  to  its  final  over- 
throw— not  by  aggression  from  without,  but  by  the  force  of  sentiment 
and  principles  from  within — a  force  which,  to  the  immortal  honor  of 
the  Free  States  of  America,  has  alreadly  told  spontaneously,  yet  with 
full  eflect,  on  more  than  half  the  provinces  of  the  Union.  But  I  must 
repeat  my  conviction,  that  slavery  will  not  be  at  all  shaken — it  will  be 
strengthened  and  stand  its  ground — if  assailed  through  the  medium  of 
that  most  questionable  and  ambiguous  principle  ivhich  the  Abolitionists 
are  noic  laboring  to  force  upon  our  acceptance,  even  that  slaveholding 
is  in  itself  a  ground  of  exclusion  from  the  Christian  sacraments — 
instead  of  being  assailed  through  the  medium  of  such  other  and  obvious 
principles  as  come  home  to  the  hearts  and  the  consciences  of  all  men. 
"6.  There  is  one  reformation  about  w^hich,  for  ourselves,  we  feel 
no  difficulty,  and  that  is,  how  to  proceed  against  slaveholding  minis- 
ters, or  ministers  who  hold  slaves,  not  as  the  masters  of  a  household, 
who  must  have  them  for  domestic  servants,  but  as  masters  who  com- 
bine this  worldly  with  their  sacred  or  professional  occupation.  In 
our  own  churches  we  should  lay  an  interdict  on  our  ministers  here 
against  their  holding  any  secular  trade  or  employment,  lest  it  should 
secularize  them;  and  a  fortiori,  we  would  lay  an  interdict  on  minis- 
ters there  from  holding  slaves  for  profit,  lest  it  should  brutalize  them. 
We  must  be  forgiven  the  harshness  of  this  expression.  We  do  not 
say  that  this  is  the  invariable  effect  of  slaveholding  in  America,  and 
therefore  it  is  that  we  resist  the  proposed  excommunication  of  all  slave- 
holdei-s.  But  we  say,  that  if  not  the  universal  eflect,  it  is  at  least  the 
tendency  of  the  system;  and  we  hold  it  the  bounden  duty  of  every 
Church  to  restrain  its  ministers  from  all  which  might  put  to  hazard 


572  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 


either  their  characters  or  reputations,  and  so  to  keep  all  vitiating  ten- 
dencies and  temptations  away  from  them. 

"  7.  But.  again,  not  only  is  there  a  wrong  principle  involved  in  the 
demand  u^hich  these  Abolitionists  now  make  on  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland  :  it  is  in  itself  a  wrong  procedure  for  hastening  forward  that 
object,  for  the  accomplishment  of  which  we  are  alike  desirous  with 
themselves ;  or,  in  other  words,  it  is  not  only  wrong  in  principle,  but 
hurtful  in  eflfect.  Should  we  concede  to  their  demands,  then,  speak- 
ing in  the  terms  of  our  opinion,  we  incur  the  discredit  (and  in  propor- 
tion to  that  discredit  we  damage  our  usefulness  as  a  Church)  of  having 
given  in — and  at  the  bidding  of  another  party — to  a  factitious  and  new 
principle,  which  not  only  wants,  but  which  contravenes,  the  authority 
of  Scripture  and  of  Apostolic  example,  and,  indeed,  has  only  been 
heard  of  in  Christendom  within  these  few"  years,  as  if  gotten  up  for  an 
occasion,  instead  of  being  drawn  from  the  repositories  of  that  truth 
which  is  immutable  and  eternal — even  the  principle  that  no  slave- 
holder should  be  admitted  to  a  participation  in  the  Christian  sacra- 
ments. We  think,  therefore,  that  it  is  a  demand  which  ought  not, 
and  of  which  it  is  our  expectation  and  our  wish  that  it  will  not  be 
complied  with : — a  refusal  this,  however,  which,  though  right  and  ne- 
cessary on  other  grounds,  may  be  conceived  of  on  the  ground  of  our 
indifference  to  the  evils  of  slavery;  and  thus  most  unwarrantably  and 
unwisely  will  these  Abolitionists  have  conjured  up  what  the  enemies 
of  their  righteous  cause  might  construe  into  a  testimony  on  the  side 
of  slavery — when,  in  fact,  we  are  all  most  intent  on  the  extinction  of 
it,  as  one  of  the  greatest  moral  nuisances  that  ever  infested  the  face 
of  our  earth.  To  illustrate  our  meaning  still  further,  let  me  suppose 
that  ray  distinguished  friend,  than  whom  none  within  the  circle  of  my 
acquaintance  is  more  devoted  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  or  more  strenuous 
in  his  opposition  to  slavery,  and  all  its  abominations,  John  Joseph 
Gurney — let  me  put  the  case  of  his  being  required  to  denounce  slavery 
right  and  left,  along  the  whole  path  of  that  apostolic  journey  which 
he  made  some  years  ago  in  America,  when  he  visited  and  traveled 
through  it  for  the  main  object  of  declaring  the  blessed  gospel  of  salva- 
tion to  all,  whether  bond  or  free — let  me  imagine  that,  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  this  high  errand,  some  zealous  and  obtrusive  Abolitionist  had 
crossed  him  in  his  way,^  and  required  of  him  to  mix  up  on  all  occa- 
sions with  the  message  of  reconciliation  to  God,  the  avowals  of  his  de- 
testation for  slavery,  and  of  his  opinion  that  none  who  were  enoraged 
in  it  could  either  possess  the  character,  or  be  entitled  to  the  privileges 

1  Though  witliin  these  few  days  I  have  had  rpason  to  know  that  the  Abolitionists 
acted  to  Mr.  Gurney  on  ihis  occasion  with  greater  wisdom  and  forbearance  than  they 
a-'e  now  doinc  l»y  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  I  have  certainly  seen  an  American 
piimphJet,  full  of  tlie  most  outrageous  abuse,  against  tiiis  noble-hearted  Christian  and 
philanthropist,  because  he  did  not  come  up  to  the  full  extent  of  the  requirements  and 
speculatioas  of  its  author,  in  his  dealings  with  slavery. 


APPENDIX.  573 


of  Christians.  We  appeal  to  the  common  sense  of  all  men,  whether 
this  be  the  way  by  which  either  the  missionary  cause  on  the  one  hand, 
or  the  philanthropic  cause  on  the  other  hand,  would  have  best  been 
expedited.  The  truth  is,  that  had  the  two  been  implicated  and  bound 
together,  in  the  way  that  some  did  i-equire  of  him,  it  would  have  proved 
most  injurious  to  both.  And,  therefore,  did  Mr.  Gurney  act  with  far 
greater  wisdom  than  at  least  certain  of  his  advisers  would  have  had 
him  to  do,  when  he  kept  clear  of  the  one  topic,  and  so  awakened  no 
prejudices  or  heart-burnings  against  the  gospel  of  Christ,  at  the  time 
that  he  was  employed  in  the  enforcement  of  the  other  topic.  And  yet 
he  acquitted  himself  rightly  of,  and  did  full  justice  to  both.  For  after 
he  had  accomplished  his  purely  evangelical  tour,  and  before  leaving 
America,  he  held  a  conference  which,  I  believe,  lasted  for  days  to- 
gether, with  members  of  Congress,  and  many  of  the  most  influential 
men  in  America,  and  then  gave  his  public  testimony  on  the  evils  of 
the  system  of  slavery — in  a  style  worthy,  we  have  no  doubt,  of  the 
cause,  and  worthy  of  his  own  connection  with  those  illustrious  names 
— the  Frys,  and  the  Gurneys,  and  the  Buxtons,  and  the  Clarksons,  and 
the  Wilberforces — who  for  two  generations  have  held  unsparing  and 
uncompromising  warfare  with  this  system  of  foul  iniquity  and  horror. 

"  8.  But  whatever  the  merit  or  demerit  of  their  proceedings  with 
Mr.  Gurney,  there  is  at  least  one  undoubted  specimen  of  that  inju- 
dicious meddling  with  parties  engaged  in  another  good  work  beside 
their  own,  which  was  fitted  only  to  embarrass  the  operations,  and  im- 
pede the  success,  both  of  their  own  righteous  cause,  and  of  that  with 
which  they  were  pleased  to  interfere.  We  have  before  us  the  Thirty- 
fifth  Report  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, where,  among  other  articles,  there  is  one  designated,  '  Memo- 
rials on  Slavery.'  I  would  recommend  the  insertion  in  full,  both  of  the 
memorials  and  of  the  deliverances  thereupon  as  far  as  they  are  given, 
in  3-our  Witness  newspaper,  as  holding  out  what  we  deem  a  most  in- 
structive example  for  all  other  Christian  bodies,  and  in  particular  for 
the  Assembly  of  our  Free  Church.  We  can  only  state  here,  that  in 
the  preamble  to  one  of  these  memorials,  American  slavery  is  denounced 
as  a  sy.stem  of  oppression  most  unjust  and  grievous,  and  the  require- 
ment founded  on  this  sentence  of  condemnation — (a  sentence  in  which 
I  believe  that  both  the  American  Board  of  Missions  and  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  most  cordially  acquiesce) — is,  that  the  Board 
would  instruct  '  all  their  missionaries  and  agents  under  its  patronage 
to  bear  a  decided  testimony,  wherever  and  in  whatever  form  it  exists, 
and,  most  especially,  to  declare  in  the  name  of  the  Board,  that  Ameri- 
can slavery  is  a  sin  against  God,  and  that  its  existence  in  a  Christian 
land  is  nowise  chargeable  to  the  Christian  religion  which  they  are  com- 
missioned to  preach,  but  is  grossly  at  variance  with  all  its  holy  doc- 
trines and  precepts.'     Besides  the  memorials,  the  Board  take  notice 


574  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

of  three  petitions  which  have  been  addressed  to  them.  In  the  first  and 
second  of  these,  they  '  are  requested  and  urged  to  take  measures  to 
prevent  receiving  into  their  treasury,  any  moneys  contributed  in  one 
way  or  another  by  slaveholders,  or  any  of  the  avails  of  slave  labor.' 
In  the  third  petition,  they  are  desired  to  pass  resolutions,  declaring 
that  '  American  slavery  is  a  sin  against  God  and  man,  and  ought  to  be 
immediately  abolished,'  &c.  We  admire  the  practical  wisdom  of  the 
Board  in  the  deliverance  which  they  have  come  to,  and  in  which  they 
state  '  that  the  Board  was  established  and  incorporated  for  the  express 
purpose  of  propagating  the  gospel  in  heathen  lands,  by  supporting 
missionaries,  and  diffusing  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures — that  the 
Board  had  confined  themselves  to  this  one  great  object; — and  that  a 
regard  to  our  sacred  trust  requires  us  to  pursue  the  object  with  undi- 
vided zeal,  and  not  to  turn  aside  from  it,  or  mix  any  other  concerns 
with  it.  And  we  still  think,  that  the  Lord  of  Missions,  and  the  Sav- 
iour of  the  world,  will  approve  of  this  deliberate  purpose  of  oui's,  and 
this  course  of  action,  and  would  frown  upon  us  if  we  should  depart 
from  it.  And  we  have  the  comfort  to  believe  also  that  this  is  the  only 
purpose  and  course  of  action  which  will  give  permanent  satisfaction  to 
the  Christian  community  who  are  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  missions — 
being  fully  persuaded  that  any  essential  departure  from  this  plan  of 
operations  would  tend  to  defeat  the  great  end  we  are  pursuing — the 
conversion  of  the  heathen.'  'As  to  the  moneys  contributed  by  slave- 
holders, it  is  still  our  opinion,  that  considering  the  character  of  the 
Board  and  the  nature  of  its  objects,  it  may  fairly  be  presumed,  that  the 
funds  contributed  to  our  treasury  are  obtained  in  a  proper  manner,  and 
contributed  from  right  motives ;  and  it  is  very  manifest  that  we  can 
not  properly  examine  into  the  motives  of  those  who  sustain  our  opera- 
tions, and  that  the  attempt  to  do  this  would  be  marked  with  absurdity, 
and  would  plunge  us  in  difficulties  from  which  we  could  not  possibly 
be  extricated.'  '  It  will  not,  we  trust,  be  overlooked,  and  in  reply  to 
previous  petitions,  the  Board  has  repeatedly  and  very  frankly  declared, 
that  they  can  sustain  no  relation  to  slavery  which  implies  approbation 
of  the  system,  and,  as  a  Board,  can  have  no  connection  or  sympathy 
with  it — plainly  intimating  that  we  consider  it  one  of  the  obvious  evils 
which  exist  in  the  community,  but  the  removal  of  which,  though  we 
regard  it  as  an  object  of  fervent  desire  and  prayer,  does  not  fall  within 
our  province  as  a  Missionary  Board.  We  know  not  how  any  man  who 
maturely  considers  the  subject  can  desire  more  than  this.' 

"  9.  We  regard  the  example  here  set  before  us  as  eminently  fitted 
to  have  a  wholesome  influence  on  the  spirit  and  counsels  of  our  pend- 
ing General  Assembly.  We  are  convinced  that  the  Supreme  Eccle- 
siastical Court  of  our  Free  Church  will,  with  one  mind  and  spirit,  join 
in  the  fervent  desire  and  prayer  of  the  American  Board  for  the  removal 
of  American  slavery ;  and  we  are  hopeful  that  they  will  come  to  the 


APPENDIX.  575 


same  conclusion,  that  this  is  an  object  which  does  not  practically  or 
executively  come  within  their  province  as  a  Church  in  a  distant  land. 
It  is  not  by  thus  assailing  either  Church  Courts  or  Missionary  Boards, 
that  these  Abolitionists  can  ever  expect  to  advance  their  own  cause. 
They  have  addressed  themselves  to  the  wrong  parties ;  and  we  can 
now  understand  how  it  is,  that  by  wayward  and  misguided  tactics, 
they  have  greatly  injured  and  kept  back  the  object  which  thousands 
and  thousands  more,  both  in  America  and  elsewhere,  have  as  much 
and  as  honestly  at  heart  as  they  have.  It  does  not  seem  to  us  the 
right  way  of  going  to  work,  that  they  should  labor  as  they  have  done 
to  affix  a  universal  stigma  on  American  slaveholders.  But  through 
the  medium  of  the  public  mind,  both  in  their  own  and  other  countries, 
they  should  bring  a  direct  influence  to  bear  on  the  American  legisla- 
tors. For  this  purpose  let  them  make  full  exposure — but  within  the 
limits  of  truth — of  the  evils  and  atrocities  of  a  system  which  requires 
only  to  be  known  that  it  may  be  execrated  by  all  the  wise  and  the 
good  of  our  civilized  world.  For  the  accomplishnient  of  this  result 
there  is  no  need  of  exaggeration.  The  application  of  a  whip  to  human 
beings  as  a  stimulus  to  labor,  the  cruel  separation  of  relatives — nay. 
apart  from  these  special  enormities,  the  mere  traffic  in  men,  who  ai-e 
flesh  of  our  own  flesh,  and  bone  of  our  own  bone — above  all,  the  denial 
of  Christian,  or  of  any  education,  to  the  whole  of  a  degraded  race,  who 
share  alike  with  ourselves  in  their  mental  capabilities,  and  the  immor- 
tality of  their  duration — these  are  topics  which  can  not  fail  to  enlist  a 
daily  increasing  number  of  Christians  and  philanthropists,  in  opposition 
to  a  system  so  full  of  abominations  and  horrors.  Nor  can  we  despair 
of  the  eflfect  that  such  a  reaction,  vigorously  kept  up  and  never  devi- 
ated from,  must  have,  and  that  speedily,  on  the  American  government; 
for  let  us  not  forget,  that  this  country,  throughout  many  of  her  prov- 
inces, took  the  precedency  of  all  others,  even  of  Britain  herself,  in  put- 
ting down  slavery  by  law. — I  am,  my  dear  Sir,  yours,  very  truly, 

Thomas  Chalmers." 


APPENDIX,  K.— P.  492. 

"Mr.  F.  Maule. — It  has  been  stated,  with  reference  to  yourself, 
that  you  used  an  expression  toward  the  Establishment,  that  you  de- 
nominated it  as  'a  moral  nuisance?' — My  impression  of  there  having 
been  a  great  deal  of  exaggeration,  is  very  much  founded  upon  the 
manner  in  which  that  expression  of  mine  has  been  exaggerated.  So 
far  back  as  the  year  1839,  when  there  was  a  discussion  in  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  I  remember  very  well,  that  in  putting  the  alternative, 
between  our  submitting  to  the  decisions  of  the  civil  court,  or  resisting 
them.  I  said  that  if  we  submitted  to  those  decisions,  our  Church  would 


576  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

become  a  moral  nuisance,  and  deserve  to  be  swept  off  from  the  face 
of  the  country ;  I  said  that  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  idea  of  a  dis- 
ruption in  our  heads — it  was  when  I  was  endeavoring  w'ith  all  my 
might  to  prevent  a  disruption  that  that  expression  w^as  made  use  of  by 
me  in  1839. 

"  It  has  been  also  stated  in  this  Committee,  that  the  points  upon 
which  the  Free  Church  difTer  from  the  Established  Church  are  mere 
points  of  technicality,  and  that  they  have  no  real  substance  in  them  : 
will  you  state  wMiat  you  consider  to  be  the  distinctive  principle  between 
the  Free  Church  and  the  Established  Church? — The  distinctive  prin- 
ciple some  call  'spiritual  independence.'  I  think  that  there  is  a  dif- 
ference of  nomenclature  between  the  English  and  Scotch,  and  that  our 
cause  is  a  good  deal  misunderstood  in  virtue  of  that.  I  would  say  that 
the  final  jurisdiction  of  ecclesiastical  courts  in  things  sacred  is  the  great 
princii)le  upon  which  w^e  have  gone  out,  that  that  final  jurisdiction  has 
been  violated,  and  that  it  is  not  a  capricious  or  unheard  of  novelty ;  it 
has  been  held  in  Scotland  for  more  than  two  centuries.  It  was  the 
great  question  between  the  Jameses  and  the  Charleses  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Scottish  people  on  the  other,  who  called  it  the  Headship 
of  Christ — the  term  given  to  the  principle  when  looked  to  in  a  religious 
light.  But  when  looked  to  constitutionally,  it  is  termed  the  final  juris- 
diction of  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  or  Church  courts,  in  things  sacred, 
as  distinct  from  things  civil.  Now,  it  is  sometimes  expressed  in  this 
way  by  a  Scotchman.  He  speaks  of  it  as  the  supremacy  of  the  Church 
over  all  things  ecclesiastical^  which  is  very  apt  to  mislead  the  under- 
standing of  Englishmen,  because  I  presume  that  any  question  connected 
with  the  ministerial  office,  and  which  related  to  the  '  civilia'  of  that 
office,  would  in  England  be  called  an  ecclesiastical  cause,  and  is  de- 
cided by  the  civil  courts.  Now,  there  is  a  distinction  in  the  very  con- 
stitution of  our  courts,  to  every  understanding,  which  makes  this  mat- 
ter clear  w^th  us.  There  are  ecclesiastical  courts  that  are  constituted 
of  the  Kirk-session,  the  Presbytery,  the  Synod,  and  General  Assembly; 
and  there  are  civil  courts.  We  call  matters  decided  by  those  courts 
ecclesiastical  matters,  because  our  habit  has  been  all  along  to  refer 
things  sacred  to  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  which  never  passed  from 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  to  the  civil  courts.  Those  are  things  sacred  ; 
but  our  calling  them  things  ecclesiastical  is  very  apt  to  mislead  En- 
glish people,  under  the  idea  that  we  claim  the  supremacy  over  the 
'  civilia'  as  well  as  the  '  sacra'  of  the  ministerial  office.  Now,  there 
is  nothing  more  distinct  in  a  Scotch  mind  than  the  proper  function  of 
the  ecclesiastical  court,  which  is  to  take  up  things  sacred,  and  the 
proper  function  of  the  civil  court,  which  is  to  take  up  things  secular 
connected  with  the  ministerial  office,  such  as  glebe,  stipend,  church  or 
place  of  worship,  and  the  manse  or  parsonage  house,  and  other  matters 
of  the  same  kind,  which  might  be  veiy  easily  enumerated. 


APPENDIX.  577 


I 


"  Is  the  Committee  to  understand  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Cliurch 
in  things  sacred,  and  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  in  things  secular,  has 
been  the  principle  maintained  by  the  Church  of  Scotland  since  the  time 
of  the  Reformation  ? — Yes  ;  since  the  time  of  what  has  been  sometimes 
called  '  The  First  Reformation.'  I  think  in  the  course  of  five  minutes 
I  could  state  what  the  leading  points  are,  and  which  will  give,  I  think, 
a  satisfactory  answer  to  the  question,  and  will  account  for  the  unanimity, 
till  lately,  of  the  Scottish  understanding  upon  the  subject  of  things  sacred 
belonging  exclusively  to  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  things  civil  be- 
longing exclusively  to  the  civil  courts.  If  you  refer  to  the  Act  of  1567, 
chapter  7,  it  is  there  stated,  '  That  the  examination  and  admission  of 
ministers  within  this  realm  be  only  in  the  power  of  the  Kirk.'  And  if 
the  Presbytery  refuses  to  admit  the  person  presented  by  the  patron,  it 
shall  be  lawful  for  the  patron  to  appeal  to  the  superintendent  of  the 
ministers  in  that  province  where  the  benefice  lies.  That  now  corre- 
sponds to  the  Synod,  the  next  highest  court  in  gradation  of  our  ecclesi- 
astical courts.  Then  he  applies  to  the  Synod,  and  desires  'that  the 
person  presented  be  admitted ;  and  if  they  refuse,  he  appeals  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  this  haill  i-ealm  ;'  (and  here  are  the  decisive  words) 
— '  By  whom  the  cause  being  decided,  shall  take  end  as  they  decern 
and  declare.'  There  is  no  such  thing  spoken  of  as  an  appeal  from  the 
General  Assembly  to  the  Court  of  Session  upon  any  thing  connected 
with  the  examination  and  induction  of  ministers.  Then  the  Act  of 
1592,  is  confirmatory  of  this.  It  is  entitled,  'Ratification  of  the  Lib- 
erty of  the  True  Kirk ;'  it  abrogates  other  Acts,  because  there  was  a 
perpetual  contest  between  our  James  VI.  and  the  General  Assembly, 
and  a  number  of  advei-^e  Acts  were  passed  during  the  interval  from 
1567  to  1592.  However,  this  Act  of  1592,  c.  117,  abrogates  all  those 
Acts,  and  confirms  the  Act  of  1 567,  and  it  says,  '  In  case  the  Presby- 
tery refuses  to  admit  any  qualified  minister  presented  to  them  by  the 
patron,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  patron  to  retain  the  whole  fruits  of 
the  benefice  in  his  own  hands.'  That  we  are  perfectly  reconciled  to, 
for  it  is  a  civil  matter.  Then  going  rapidly  downward  about  a  cen- 
tury, the  Act  of  1690,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  Settlement,  annuls 
all  advei-se  Acts  which  were  passed  under  Charles  II.,  and  restores  the 
Act  of  1592.  And  again,  coming  to  Queen  Anne's  Act  upon  the  re- 
storation of  patronage,  which  transfers  the  initiative  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  ministers  from  the  heritors  and  Kirk-sessions  to  the  respective 
patrons,  there  is  a  clause  in  that  Act  upon  which  we  conceive  that  we 
still  have  the  final  jurisdiction  in  things  sacred.  It  says,  '  That  the 
Presbytery  shall  be  bound  to  receive  and  admit  in  the  same  manner  per- 
sons thus  presented,  as  before  the  making  of  this  Act  they  ought  to 
have  admitted.'  So  that  even  under  the  Act  of  Queen  Anne — though 
undoubtedly  the  change  was  a  very  complete  one  which  was  intro- 
duced by  the  decision  of  the  courts  in  the  case  of  Auchterarder,  as  con- 

VOL.  IV. — B  B 


^ 


578  iMEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

firmed  by  the  upper  courts,  against  which  we  could  get  no  redress  in 
Parliament — even  under  the  Act  of  Queen  Anne  the  doctrine  was,  that 
for  the  admission  of  a  minister  there  must  be  the  concurrence  of  two 
ingredients — one  of  these  was  a  valid  presentation,  and  another  was 
the  concurrence  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts  to  the  appointment  of  the 
presentee.  He  appears  before  us,  we  put  him  on  trial,  and  sit  in  judg- 
ment upon  the  question,  '  Is  it  for  the  Christian  good  of  the  parish  that 
this  man  should  be  appointed  its  minister  ?'  The  concurrence  of  the 
ecclesiastical  court  was  in  all  cases  required  before  effect  could  be  given 
to  the  presentation.  Therefore  we  felt  that  a  very  great  and  most 
pernicious  novelty  was  grafted  upon  our  former  ecclesiastical  system, 
by  this  decision  in  the  case  of  Auchterarder ;  and  it  may  be  observed, 
that  during  the  last  century  we  sometimes  made  a  mistake  as  to  the 
validity  of  presentations ;  some  ministers  were  inducted  and  remained 
upon  a  wrong  presentation.  And  I  think  it  is  quite  interesting  to  ob- 
serve the  direction  which  the  matter  then  took,  for  it  shows  so  com- 
pletely the  distinct  provinces  of  the  two  sets  of  courts.  When  we  did 
make  a  mistake,  the  patron  retained  the  stipend  :  the  person  whom  we 
had  inducted  lost  all  the  benefit  of  the  temporalities,  but  he  still  contin- 
ued the  minister  of  the  parish ;  we  had  ordained  him  as  such,  and  he 
officiated  as  minister  there,  minus  the  temporalities.  That  has  hap- 
pened in  about  half-a-dozen  instances ;  and  it  shows  practically  how 
the  thing  operated.  There  was  one  very  remarkable  case  in  Dunse, 
where  the  patron  not  only  sued  for  his  own  right,  but  in  virtue  of  that 
right  he  wanted  the  Court  of  Session  to  restrain  the  Presbytery  from 
settling  any  other  man  in  the  parish.  The  case  is  reported  by  Lord 
Monboddo  ;  and,  as  taken  from  his  report,  his  words  are,  '  The  Lords 
would  not  meddle  with  that  request,  because  that  was  interfering  with 
the  power  of  ordination,  with  which  the  Lords  thought  they  had  no- 
thing to  do.'  So  that  there  was  all  respect  paid  to  the  appropriate 
function  of  the  ecclesiastical  court,  as  to  the  settlement  and  ordination 
of  ministers.  I  think,  in  the  mass  of  controversial  authorship  which 
has  been  issued  upon  this  subject,  we  are  apt  to  lose  sight  of  the  few 
essential  sentences  which  might  decide  this  whole  question.  There  is 
nothing  that  appears  to  me  to  be  more  conclusive  than  a  brief  passage, 
which  I  can  read  in  two  minutes,  from  Lord  Kames's  Law  Tracts. 
The  truth  is,  that  all  legal  authorities,  either  past  or  present,  are  in 
favor  of  the  view  on  which  the  Free  Church  has  proceeded.  Lord 
Kames,  in  article  9,  in  his  Law  Tracts,  says,  'Ecclesiastical  courts, 
besides  their  censorial  powers  with  relation  to  manners  and  religious 
tenets,  have  an  important  jurisdiction  in  providing  parishes  with  proper 
ministers  and  pastors ;  and  they  exercise  this  jurisdiction,  by  naming 
for  the  minister  of  a  vacant  church  that  person  duly  qualified  who  is 
presented  by  the  patron.  Their  sentence,  however,  is  ultimate,  even 
where  their  proceedings  are  illegal.'      (That  is,  illegal  according  to 


APPENDIX.  579 


civil  law.)  '  The  person  authorized  by  their  sentence,  even  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  presentee,  is  de  facto  minister  of  ihe  parish,  and  as  such  is 
entitled  to  perform  every  ministerial  function  ;'  but  then  he  has  no  claim 
to  the  stipend.  '  It  would  be  a  great  defect,'  his  Lordship  proceeds  to 
say,  'in  the  constitution  of  a  government,  that  ecclesiastical  courts 
should  have  an  arbitrary  power  in  providing  parishes  with  ministers. 
To  prevent  such  arbitrary  power,  the  check  provided  by  law  is,  that 
a  minister  settled  illegally  shall  not  be  entitled  to  the  stipend.  This 
happily  reconciles  two  things  generally  opposite.  The  check  is  ex- 
tremely mild,  and  yet  is  fully  effectual  to  prevent  the  abuse.'  '  Nor  is 
it  inconsistent  that  two  courts  should  give  contrary  judgments  to  differ- 
ent effects.  This  produces  not  a  conflict  of  jurisdictions,  for  both  judg- 
ments may  stand  and  be  effectual.'  '  But  I  see  not  that  there  can  be 
in  Britain  a  direct  conflict  betwixt  two  courts,  both  trying  the  same 
cause  to  the  same  effect.'  '  But  in  this  island,  matters  of  jurisdiction 
are  better  ordered  than  to  afford  place  for  such  an  absurdity.  An  indi- 
rect conflict  may  indeed  happen,  where  two  courts  handling  occasion- 
ally the  same  point,  in  different  causes,  are  of  different  opinions  upon 
that  point.  Such  contrariety  of  opinion  ought,  as  far  as  possible,  to  be 
avoided  for  the  sake  of  expediency,  as  tending  to  lessen  the  authority 
of  one  of  the  courts,  and  perhaps  of  both.  But  as  such  contrary  opin- 
ions are  the  foundation  of  judgments  calculated  for  different  ends  and 
purposes,  these  judgments  when  put  to  execution,  can  never  interfere.' 

'•  Do  you  think  that  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  at  present  established 
by  law,  have  recognized  on  the  part  of  the  State  a  jurisdiction  in  mat- 
ters spiritual  and  sacred,  and  against  which  the  people  of  Scotland  have 
strongly  contended  in  times  past  ? — Yes,  I  think  they  have  completely 
obliterated  that  line  of  demarkation  which  we  ahvays  thought  divided 
the  civil  from  the  ecclesiastical  courts. 

"  In  so  crossing  that  line  of  demarkation,  they  have  adopted  the  prin- 
ciples which  are  generally  known  in  Scotland  by  the  name  of  Erastian 
principles  ? — Yes. 

"  You  use  the  term  '  Erastian'  as  applied  to  the  principles  of  the 
Established  Church  ;  do  you  use  that  term  in  the  sense  of  personal 
reproach  and  insult,  or  do  you  use  it  in  a  general  sense,  speaking  upon 
a  question  of  religious  controversy  ? — I  use  it  as  characterizing  the 
policy  or  principle  upon  which  they  act,  but  certainly  not  with  any  thing 
like  a  personal  application  to  individuals. 

"  And  I  presume  that  you  consider  that  the  principle  of  the  spiritual 
independence  of  the  Church  is  a  principle  which  it  is  essential  to  main- 
tain, in  order  to  make  the  Church  as  useful  as  possible  among  the  com- 
munity where  she  exists  ? — I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  of  that ;  and 
I  think  that,  both  on  the  ground  of  principle  and  on  the  ground  of  ex- 
pediency, we  should  keep  up  the  power  of  devising  and  doing  as  we 
think  best  for  the  Christian  good  of  the  people  ;  first,  because  we  have 


580  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

a  directory  in  the  Bible  which  we  are  bound  to  follow ;  and  second, 
because  unless  we  do  so,  the  Church  would  become  quite  helpless  in 
its  endeavor  to  extend  itself  and  to  reclaim  the  masses  of  our  degenerate 
population.  I  can  give  an  instance  of  this.  An  English  bishop,  who 
has  a  Welsh  diocese,  once  told  me  that  a  presentee  was  offered  him  by 
a  patron  who  could  not  speak  a  word  of  Welsh,  and  the  bishop  said 
there  was  no  help  for  it,  and  that  he  was  obliged  to  admit  the  presentee. 
Now,  that  is  a  species  of  helplessness  in  which  we  never  could  acqui- 
esce. An  instance  similar  to  this  happened  in  Scotland  in  1825,  when 
I  was  myself  a  member  of  the  Assembly.  The  Crown  issued  a  pre- 
sentation to  a  man  who  could  not  speak  Gaelic,  for  the  parish  of  Little 
Dunkeld,  where  the  people  can  speak  English  generally,  but  they  can 
not  speak  it  well  enough  to  profit  so  much  from  an  English  as  from  a 
Gaelic  sermon.  The  case  came  up  for  our  decision,  and  we,  acting 
upon  our  undoubted  prerogative  to  decide  whether  this  was  the  man 
who  should  be  appointed  to  that  parish,  took  evidence  upon  the  matter, 
and  by  a  very  small  majority  in  so  large  a  body  as  the  General  Assem- 
bly, rejected  the  presentee.  The  Crown  never  once  thought  of 
appealing  to  the  Court  of  Session,  or  of  doing  any  thing  else  but  simply 
acquiescing  in  the  decision  of  the  supreme  ecclesiastical  court — that 
court  in  which  the  thing  has  always,  until  of  late  years,  '  taken  end ;' 
and,  accordingly,  they  withdrew  their  presentee,  and  gave  us  one  who 
could  preach  in  Gaelic.  If  we,  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  are  to  be 
bereft  of  the  power  of  judging  upon  a  subject  so  exclusively  professional, 
so  much  ours,  and  so  little  within  the  province  of  a  civil  court,  namely, 
upon  the  question,  What  is  best  for  the  Christian  interests  of  the  popula- 
tion ?  I  can  not  imagine  any  system  that  is  more  calculated  to  bring 
the  population  under  an  influence  under  which  they  must  very  rapidly 
degenerate. 

"  Are  the  opinions  which  you  have  just  expressed  those  of  the  great 
body  of  the  Free  Church  in  Scotland  ? — I  should  think  so  ;  and  indeed 
I  have  no  doubt  they  are  the  universal  opinions. 

"  If  that  be  so,  is  there  any  prospect  of  a  reunion  taking  place  be- 
tween the  Free  Church  and  the  Established  Church? — I  am  afraid  not, 
in  the  way  of  a  reunion.  I  think  that  a  restoration  is  possible,  but  not 
in  the  way  of  a  reunion  between  the  two  bodies ;  that  is,  between  the 
Free  Church  and  the  Established  Church. 

"  You  say  that  a  restoration  is  possible  ? — Yes,  but  if  I  were  to  state 
the  process,  it  would  appear,  I  fear,  so  extravagant,  that  I  have  not  the 
slightest  hope  of  its  being  at  present  brought  about.  We  must,  of 
course,  provide  for  the  perfect  integrity  of  our  own  ecclesiastical  prin- 
ciples, and  I  do  not  see  how  that  can  be  done,  except  by  the  Legislature 
adopting  the  Free  Church  as  the  Establishment,  and  then  leaving  us  to 
deal  with  the  ministers  of  the  Established  Church  as  so  many  ecclesi- 
astical delinquents,  who  have  forsaken  their  original  principles.     I  dare 


APPENDIX.  581 


say  that  we  should  be  very  mild  and  indulgent  in  dealing  with  them,  so 
far  as  was  consistent  with  our  principles.  I  state  this  in  answer  to 
your  question  ;  but,  at  the  same  lime,  I  have  not  the  slightest  hope 
that  it  is  a  measure  which  will  soon  be  carried  out ;  though  we  would 
certainly  treat  those  ministers  in  a  way  that  would  be  attended  with 
less  severity  upon  them  personally  than  our  sufferings  have  amounted 
to.  If  there  was  such  a  resolution  of  the  Legislature  come  to,  I  would 
ventui'e  to  say  that  there  should  be  no  such  thing  as  an  instant  depriva- 
tion of  the  emoluments  of  office  of  any  individual,  but  they  should  be 
left  to  die  out ;  and  when  a  parish  was  vacant,  it  should  be  filled  up  by 
a  licentiate  of  the  Free  Church  ;  and  in  that  way  there  would  be  a  sub- 
stitution of  a  Church  with  its  original  principles  for  a  Church  with  its 
ahered  principles.  That  of  itself,  however,  would  not,  I  think,  satisfy  the 
Free  Church  now.  When  a  negotiation  formerly  went  on  between  the 
parties,  as  between  Lord  Aberdeen  and  myself,  we  attempted  then  to  ne- 
gotiate for  the  minimum  on  which  it  was  possible  to  remain  in  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  that  minimum  being  what  we  called  a  liberum  arbitrium, 
leaving  every  thing  to  remain  as  regards  the  initiative  and  patronage  as 
before ;  and  the  Church  having  the  full  power  of  sitting  in  judgment 
upon  the  question  and  deciding  it,  '  Is  it  a  right  thing  that  this  presentee 
shall  be  appointed  to  this  parish  ?  is  this  presentee  a  fit  person  for  this 
parish  ?'  so  that  we  could  either  lay  an  arrest  upon  the  presentation  or 
sustain  it,  and  proceed  upon  it.  But  now  that  we  have  left  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  I  do  not  think  that  the  same  terms  that  would  have  kept 
us  in  the  Church  would  bring  us  back  again  ;  for  my  own  part,  I  would 
say,  that  if  ever  there  should  be  a  negotiation  opened  again,  it  should 
be  a  negotiation,  as  regards  the  Free  Church,  not  for  the  minimum,  but 
for  the  optimism.  We  could  have  made  a  sacrifice  then  upon  some 
points,  in  order  to  prevent  a  disruption ;  but  now  that  a  disruption  has 
occurred,  we  would  make  a  strong  attempt  to  get  the  best  possible 
system  that  we  could  before  we  would  adopt  it ;  and  I  am  very  glad 
that  1  can  quote  upon  the  subject  of  the  optimism,  if  not  in  the  very 
words,  at  least  the  substance  of  a  sentence  which  I  wrote  in  one  of  my 
letters  to  Lord  Aberdeen,  that  I  conceived  the  best  ecclesiastical  system 
that  could  be  established  for  Scotland,  was  a  Church  where  the  minis- 
ters were  paid  by  the  State,  and  chosen  by  the  people  ;  so  that  I  do  not 
think  that  even  if  patronage  were  modified  to  the  degree  which  would 
have  kept  us  in,  if  patronage  were  to  remain  in  any  degree,  they  would 
bring  us  back  again. 

Mr.  W.  Patten. — Did  I  understand  you  to  say,  that  now  the  Free 
Church  would  not  consent  to  any  right  on  the  part  of  the  patron  to 
presentation  ? — I  do  not  think  that  the  Free  Church  would  consent  to 
become  the  Establishment,  except  on  the  condition  of  the  abolition  of 
patronage. 

"Mr,  F.  Maule. — I  believe  we  may  genei-ally  say,  that  during  all 


582  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

your  life  you  have  been  a  strong  friend  of  the  maintenance  of  the  insti- 
tutions of  this  country.  In  your  opinion,  do  you  look  upon  the  Free 
Church  as  safe  and  salutary  with  respect  to  the  political  and  established 
institutions  of  this  country,  or  do  you  consider  that  any  danger  may  be 
apprehended  in  reference  to  those  institutions,  from  the  Free  Church 
being  allowed,  by  granting  sites  and  other  legitimate  indulgences,  to 
follow  the  course  which  the  consciences  of  the  people  feel  to  be  the 
right  one  ? — I  think  that  all  the  doctrines  and  all  the  doings  of  the  Free 
Church  are  on  the  side  of  social  order  and  the  well-being  of  society  5 
and  I  can  not  imagine  that  the  existence  of  the  Free  Chui'ch  can  have 
any  thing  like  a  hostile  influence  upon  the  established  institutions  of 
the  country.  And  I  may  observe,  that  is  not  exclusively  ours,  for  I 
believe  it  belongs  to  the  English  Methodists  as  well  as  to  us,  and  also 
to  the  older  Dissenting  denominations  in  Scotland.  We  of  the  Free 
Church  are  not  Voluntaries,  and  I  confess  to  you  that  I  should  look 
with  a  sigh  to  the  demolition  of  the  framework  either  of  the  Scotch  or 
of  the  English  Establishment.  Grant  an  Establishment  upon  right  prin- 
ciples, and  if  well  worked,  it  is  the  most  efficient  of  all  machinery  for 
pervading  the  people  with  religion  ;  and  it  marks  the  exceeding  strength 
of  our  principle,  that  we  have  dissented  from  the  Establishment  in  Scot- 
land, not  quasi  an  Establishment,  but  from  such  an  Establishment — a 
vitiating  flaw  having  been  inserted  into  it,  which  we  think  fatal  to  its 
character,  and  fatal  also  to  the  efficacy  of  its  ministrations ;  so  that  I 
believe  there  is  not  a  body  in  Christendom  which  gives  such  a  strong 
testimony  in  favor  of  the  principle  of  an  Establishment  as  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland.  Here  we  are  incurring  the  utmost  dislike  fi-om  the 
Voluntaries  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  actual  friends  of  the  Estab- 
lishment on  the  other,  and  yet  we  will  not  let  go  the  principle  that  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  provide  for  the  religious  education  of 
the  people ;  and  it  is  thus,  too,  that  best  effect  is  given  to  the  territorial 
principle  by  which  to  reclaim  the  masses.  I  do  not  know  any  system 
better  than  the  territorial  system,  if  well  worked,  provided  it  be  based 
upon  the  proper  principle,  and  the  ministers  of  the  Establishment  have 
the  same  freedom  which  we  enjoyed  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  its 
original  state. 

"  Sir  J.  Graham. — On  principle,  you  are  a  great  friend  to  the 
Establishment  in  connection  with  the  State? — I  am. 

"  I  think  I  had  the  pleasure  of  attending  a  course  of  lectures  that 
was  given  by  you  at  the  Hanover  Square  Rooms,  in  defense  of  the 
English  Church  Establishment,  at  a  time  when  you  thought  it  was 
assailed  ? — It  was  not  in  defense  of  the  English  Church  Establishment, 
it  was  in  defense  of  Establishments  generally. 

"  But  I  believe  you  stood  forward,  in  those  lectures,  in  defense  of 
the  English  Church  Establishment? — There  is  a  great  difTerence  be- 
tween two  Churches,  one  of  which  is  moving  upward,  and  upon  the 


APPENDIX.  583 


advance  to  a  better  position  than  it  now  occupies,  and  the  other  of 
which  is  falling  down  or  declining,  from  a  higher  point  than  the  En- 
glish Establishment  ever  occupied ;  I  should  therefore  feel  more  hope 
for  the  English  Establishment  than  I  do  for  our  present  Scotch  Estab- 
lishment. There  is  all  the  difference  that  we  have  in  morals  and  re- 
ligion, between  a  backslider  and  an  aspiring  penitent,  who  is  just  shak- 
ing off  his  old  profligate  habits.  I  will  not  speak  so  confidently  now 
of  the  English  Establishment  as  I  did  then ;  but  I  spoke  of  Establish- 
ments in  the  abstract ;  I  did  not  come  to  any  reckoning  with  the  En- 
glish Establishment  in  regard  to  its  deficiencies,  and  I  should  say  that 
I  could  not,  with  the  same  confidence,  advocate  the  cause  of  the  En- 
glish Establishment  now  as  I  did  then,  because  of  what  I  hear  with 
regard  to  the  inroads  of  Puseyism  in  the  Church  of  England,  which  I 
consider  to  be  a  very  great  corruption. 

'•  In  what  year  was  it  that  I  had  the  pleasure  of  attending  your  lec- 
tures?— It  was  in  the  year  1838. 

"  The  Queen  is  the  head  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  lay  patron- 
age exists  in  the  Church  of  England  to  a  very  great  extent ;  and  still, 
notwithstanding  those  imperfections  in  your  Presbyterian  eye,  you 
strongly  advocated,  at  that  time,  the  maintenance  of  the  Church  of 
England  such  as  it  was? — I  advocated  the  Church  of  England  as  a 
good  machine,  but  which  required  to  be  mended ;  and  indeed  I  ven- 
tured to  say  so,  and  suggested  that  they  should  rid  themselves  of  the 
figment  of  apostolical  succession — which  was  the  expression  that  I 
used.  There  is  another  passage  in  those  lectures  (I  am  glad  that  they 
are  printed,  because  they  can  be  appealed  to)  regarding  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  Church  of  England  and  the  Church  of  Scotland,  with 
reference  to  spiritual  independence.  As  against  the  Voluntaries,  I 
advocated  an  Establishment  in  the  abstract,  as  a  piece  of  effectual 
mechanism  which  the  Voluntaries  could  never  replace,  if  the  Establish- 
ment were  abolished.  Had  my  subject  led  me  to  take  cognizance  of 
the  defects  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  it  did  not  lead  me  to  do, 
it  would  have  been  different :  but  indeed  I  should  have  felt  it  a  little 
obtrusive,  a  little  presumptuous,  for  me  to  come  to  England  for  the 
purpose  of  lecturing  the  people  here  on  the  defects  of  their  own  Estab- 
lishment ;  I  came  to  lecture  on  the  Establishment  principle  as  opposed 
to  Voluntaryism ;  but  I  do  not  know  any  stronger  passages  in  these 
lectures  than  those  in  which  I  denounced  the  notion  of  apostolical  suc- 
cession, and  also  the  dependence  of  the  Church  upon  the  State  in 
things  sacred. 

"  I  can  not  forget  what  falls  from  you ;  I  think  I  recollect  that  in 
those  lectures  you  advocated  even  the  maintenance  of  what  some  have 
called  ecclesiastical  sinecures,  upon  the  ground  that  dignitaries  o- 
learned  persons  were  thereby  enabled  to  apply  themselves  to  learning, 
and  to  come  out  as  powerful  champions  in  defense  of  the  Establish- 


584  MEMOIRS   OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

merit  of  which  they  were  members  ? — To  such  a  degree  am  I  in  favor 
of  ecclesiastical  sinecures,  that  I  should  be  glad  to  have  them  in  our 
Church.  At  that  time  it  struck  me  that  there  was  a  vulgarizing  pro- 
cess going  on,  by  the  alienation  of  cathedral  property,  and  I  endeavored 
to  point  out  what  I  thought  a  better  direction  for  this  property,  and 
that  was,  turning  each  cathedral  institute  into  a  theological  seminary 
or  college.  I  am  very  friendly  to  what  may  be  called  ecclesiastical 
sinecures,  not  that  I  mean  that  they  should  be  sinecures,  but  that  there 
should  be  a  certain  number  of  persons  of  learning  maintained  at  leis- 
ure, and  endowed  for  the  purpose  of  contributing  to  theological  liter- 
ature. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  headship  of  the  sovereign  and  lay  patronage 
existing  to  a  great  extent  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  ecclesiastical 
sinecures  existing  in  the  Church  of  England,  you  stood  forvi-ard  to 
defend  it  against  the  Voluntary  system  ? — I  am  in  favor  of  the  Church 
of  England  as  against  the  Voluntary  system.  I  should  have  felt  the 
weakness  of  my  ground  if  I  had  attempted  to  defend  the  Church  of 
England  in  itself;  and  I  should  have  been  leaving  unnecessarily  the 
safe  ground  of  argument  in  favor  of  the  Establishment  principle,  and 
the  undoubted  duty  of  Government  to  concern  themselves  with  the 
religious  education  of  the  people,  and  also  the  great  efficiency  of  the 
mechanism  of  an  Establishment,  for  the  Voluntary  principle  does  not 
overtake  the  masses.  Upon  those  grounds  I  did  advocate  the  Church 
of  England  as  an  Establishment,  but  I  certainly  did  not  stand  there  as 
an  advocate  for  the  corruptions  of  the  Church  of  England. 

"  Your  objection  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  is,  that  it  is  so  Erastian 
an  Establishment,  that,  with  all  your  objections  to  Voluntaryism,  you 
think  on  the  whole  it  has  been  a  duty  to  secede  from  it? — Yes,  I 
think  so. 

"  Apart  from  the  question  of  payment  there  remains  the  more  im- 
portant point  of  the  minister  being  chosen  by  the  people;  what  is  that 
choice  to  which  you  refer  ? — I  know  that  in  England  a  system  of  popu- 
lar election  may  appear  to  be  a  very  monstrous  one,  under  the  idea 
that  we  conceive  the  people  to  be  the  seat-holders,  so  that  any  man 
that  can  afford  to  pay  for  a  seat  is  one  of  the  people  to  vote,  and  to 
exercise  what  may  be  called  'the  spiritual  franchise.'  What  I  mean 
by  the  people  is  the  body  of  communicants,  which  communicants  are 
admitted  to  the  table  of  the  sacrament  upon  a  strict  examination 
of  their  religious  knowledge  and  of  their  religious  character ;  and  I 
should  think  that  the  election  by  people  of  that  class  is  in  very  safe 
hands. 

"  But  still,  though  you  would  allow  the  initiative  to  the  people,  you 
would  never  part  with  a  power  of  veto  on  the  choice,  to  be  exercised 
by  the  ecclesiastical  court,  and  without  appeal,  except  to  other  ec- 
clesiastical authorities? — I  would  say  that  it  were  a  great  defect  in  a 


APPENDIX.  585 


Church  if  the  popular  power  were  the  only  power  concerned  in  the 
appointment  of  the  minister ;  and  that  it  adds  very  much  to  the  per- 
fection of  the  Church  to  have  a  body  of  men  competent  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment upon  the  literature  and  the  other  qualifications  of  the  minister,  to 
concur  with  the  people  in  their  appointment. 

"  When  you  say  '  the  choice  of  the  people,'  are  you  of  opinion  that 
all  communicants  have  an  equal  right  to  a  voice  ? — The  practice  is  for 
all  male  communicants  to  vote. 

"Why  should  female  communicants  be  excluded? — I  have  always 
looked  upon  this  as  a  very  paltry  and  distasteful  question ;  and  I  think 
that  it  is  revolting  to  the  collective  mind  of  the  Free  Church.  Of 
course  you  can  not,  among  600  ministers,  say  that  some  strange  pro- 
position may  not  be  advanced  by  this  or  that  individual ;  but  I  do  look 
upon  it  as  a  question  which  generally  they  would  not  entertain. 

"  Is  there  any  thing  in  the  pi'ocess  which  you  think  would  be  incon- 
sistent with  female  modesty  and  propriety,  and  would  prevent  females 
taking  a  part  in  it  ? — I  do  not  think  that  there  is  any  thing  in  the 
process  which  would  be  inconsistent  with  female  modesty  and  pro- 
priety. 

"Is  there  any  coming  forward  in  the  presence  of  the  congregation 
to  sign  the  call,  or  any  thing  else  which  would  be  disagreeable  to 
females  ? — When  I  was  a  minister  in  Glasgow  I  remember  being  pres- 
ent at  taking  the  concurrence  or  call  of  the  people,  but  I  really  can 
not  say  at  present  how  the  matter  proceeds. 

"  Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  explain  a  point  which  is  difficult  to 
my  apprehension ;  you  contend  that  the  call  of  the  people  is  a  Chris- 
tian principle,  and  that  the  nomination  of  the  patron  is  anti-Christian 
and  Erastian ;  will  you  explain  what  you  consider  to  be  the  Christian 
character  of  the  one,  and  the  anti-Christian  character  of  the  other  ? — 
I  do  not  think  that  the  terms  '  Christian'  and  '  anti-Christian,'  should  be 
applied  to  this  question.  I  think  that  the  term  '  Erastianism'  has  no 
relation  to  this  point.  I  would  say  that  it  is  anti-Christian  if  you  in- 
fringe upon  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church,  for  it  is  a  Chris- 
tian principle  that  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  Church  should 
be  maintained  But  with  regard  to  the  nomination  by  an  individual 
patron  on  the  one  hand,  as  compared  with  popular  election  on  the  other, 
I  would  scarcely  view  it  in  the  same  religious  light.  I  think  that 
there  is  great  scriptural  authority  for  popular  election,  and  I  would  say 
great  authority  in  the  history  of  the  Church  during  the  three  first  cen- 
turies ;  but  the  thing  that  operates  most  strongly  with  me  is  the  re- 
spect I  have  for  the  collective  mind  and  views  of  a  well-trained  con- 
gregation. I  think  that  the  people  collectively  are  better  qualified  to 
choose  a  right  minister  than  an  individual  patron  is. 

"  It  would  touch  the  relative  qualification  of  the  congregation  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  the  lav  patron  on  the  other ;   but  in  principle,  whv  is 


086  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

the  one  Christian,  or  pre-eminently  Christian  and  right,  and  the  other, 
I  will  not  term  it  anti-Christian,  but  in  your  opinion,  pre-eminently 
wrong? — I  think  that  theological  authorities  are  in  favor  of  popular 
election,  looking  to  the  examples  that  we  have  in  the  New  Testament 
of  popular  election  on  the  part  of  the  Christian  Church  :  and  for  three, 
if  not  four  centuries,  and  indeed  continued  down  to  the  fifth  or  sixth 
century,  there  ai"e  vestiges  of  popular  election,  which  would  seem  to 
show  that  that  was  the  original  system  of  the  Church. 

"  Did  I  rightly  understand  you  to  say  that  the  only  mode  of  merging 
the  unhappy  differences  now  existing  would  be  an  inversion  of  the  past 
policy  ;  that  patronage  must  be  abolished,  and  that  if  that  matter 
were  conceded,  the  Free  Church  would  be  as  mild  as  they  could 
be  toward  the  members  of  the  Establishment  consistently  with  theii 
principles  ? — Yes ;  that  is  the  substance  of  the  answer  I  gave  to  the 
question. 

"  And  that  your  mode  of  reconciling  the  Free  Church  to  the  State 
would  be,  not  to  fill  up  the  vacancies  as  they  occurred  in  the  livings 
of  various  parishes  in  Scotland  with  members  of  the  EstaV>lishment,  but 
that  licentiates  of  the  Free  Church  should  be  appointed  to  fill  up  the 
vacancies  ? — Surely  that  would  be  the  way  of  it.  But  this  answer  was 
drawn  out  from  me  by  the  question  that  was  put,  and  I  gave  my  ex- 
planation of  the  right  restorative  process  under  the  complete  impression 
that  it  would  be  looked  upon  by  the  generality  of  the  public  as  being 
at  present  completely  chimerical  and  hopeless.  I  do  not  expect  it  soon. 
In  order  to  give  an  adequate  impression  of  the  difficulty  that  stands  in 
the  way  of  re-union,  I  stated  the  only  process  by  which  I  think,  con- 
sistently with  our  principles,  the  Church  of  Scotland,  could  be  re- 
stored to  its  original  state ;  and  I  am  afraid  that,  in  the  actual  state  of 
opinion  among  various  classes,  such  an  adjustment  is  not  to  be  looked 
for. 

"  The  refusal  to  give  sites  is  the  exception,  not  the  rule  ;  and  a  very 
rare  exception,  is  it  not  ? — Yes ;  but  I  would  say,  that  in  the  worst 
times  of  persecution,  the  cruelties  that  were  inflicted  were  the  excep- 
tion, and  not  the  rule  ;  that  is  to  say,  there  was  no  such  thing,  at  least 
very  seldom,  as  the  extermination  of  a  whole  people.  There  were  a 
great  many  martyrdoms — still  those  martyrdoms  generally  constituted 
the  exception,  not  the  rule ;  and  the  refusal  of  sites,  though  it  consti- 
tutes the  exception,  may  become  the  rule.  It  implies  the  power,  on 
the  part  of  the  landed  proprietors,  to  refuse  sites,  and  it  may  become 
general ;  I  think  it  is  very  likely  to  be  so.  I  have  every  indulgence 
to  make  for  the  state  of  feeling  which  has  existed  during  the  last  few 
years ;  I  believe  that  the  upper  classes  very  honestly  thought  very  ill 
of  us.  They  looked  upon  us  as  so  many  radicals  and  revolutionaries ; 
and  I  have  heard  some  of  the  higher  classes,  for  whom  I  have  the 
greatest  respect,  associate  with  the  Disruption  the  idea  of  a  coming 


APPENDIX.  587 


revolution.  I  have  myself  heard  them  speak  so ;  but  I  believe  that 
the  experience  of  our  being  a  far  more  harmless  generation  than  they 
had  any  conception  of  previously,  has  gone  a  considerable  way  to  miti- 
gate that  feeling  ;  and  I  trust  that  the  mitigation  will  go  on. 

"  Is  not  the  opinion  which  you  have  just  expressed  confirmed  by  the 
progressive  diminution  of  refusals,  year  by  year,  up  to  the  present 
time  ? — I  am  very  glad  of  that  diminution,  certainly ;  but  I  think  it  is 
a  great  blot  upon  the  system  of  the  country,  if  even  a  single  exception 
should  be  tolerated. 

"  But  with  respect  to  legislation,  legislation  does  not  proceed  upon 
cases  of  exception,  but  upon  flagrant  cases  of  wide-spread  abuse.  Is 
not  that  so  ? — Yes ;  but  legislation  may  be  very  properly  resorted  to, 
for  the  purpose  of  extinguishing  a  power  that  might  be  abused,  and 
that  might  spread ;  not  confined  to  the  Free  Church,  but  extending 
also  to  other  denominations. 

"  Does  not  legislation  generally  proceed  with  a  view  to  the  correc- 
tion of  growing  abuses,  not  dealing  with  diminishing  abuses  small  in 
amount? — I  do  not  feel  myself  very  competent  to  instruct  legislators 
in  their  duty.  Wex-e  I  a  legislator  myself,  I  should  cei'tainly  feel  as  if 
it  were  a  great  deficiency  in  the  statute-book  not  to  provide  against  such 
a  flagrant  abuse  of  the  rights  of  property. 

"  You  have  very  much  deprecated,  in  your  letter,  which  you  have 
quoted  to-day,  the  use  of  violent  language.  You  have  said,  that  it  is 
not  for  the  members  of  the  Free  Church  '  to  lift  the  tongue  of  abuse 
against  the  characters,  whether  of  individuals  or  of  bodies  of  men ;' 
and  you  have  said,  that  you  are  of  opinion  that  they  are  not  called  upon 
'  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  others.'  In  the  heat  of  this  unhappy  contro- 
versy, do  you  think  that  that  rule  has  been  observed  ? — I  should  say 
that  never,  I  dare  say,  was  a  great  change  effected  in  a  country  with 
less  violence  on  the  part  of  those  who  suffered  by  the  change ;  and, 
speaking  generally,  I  think  that  there  has  been,  upon  the  whole,  a 
very  noble  exemplification  on  the  part  of  the  Free  Church,  and  of 
its  friends,  of  the  charity  which  endureth  all  things.  I  think  that 
there  has  been  great  exaggeration  upon  the  subject  of  our  violent 
language. 

"  In  that  very  letter  of  which  you  read  an  extract,  you  give  an  ex- 
planation of  the  sentiments  to  which  you  gave  utterance  in  the  General 
Assembly,  in  1839,  four  years  before  the  Disruption,  and  which  you 
admit  you  have  repeated  since ;  and  though  you  explain  it,  was  not 
the  expression  one  that  was  certainly  susceptible  of  misapprehension  : 
'  That  an  Erastian  Establishment  should  be  swept  off'  from  the  face 
of  the  country  ? — When  I  first  gave  utterance  to  that  expression  there 
was  no  such  idea  in  our  own  heads  as  a  Disruption.  We  certainly  had 
no  other  object  in  contemplation  than  that  we  should  remain  in  the 
Establishment.     If  the  470  who  have  sijrnalized  themselves  so  much 


58a  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

by  their  opposition  to  the  encroachments  of  the  civil  courts,  when  the 
thing  began  to  look  upon  them  in  good  earnest,  had  turned  round  upon 
their  own  principles,  when  they  saw  that  their  emoluments  were  threat- 
ened— I  say  that  a  Church  with  470  recusants  in  it,  who  had  so  glar- 
ingly trampled  upon  their  profession  for  years  back — such  a  Church 
would  have  scandalized  the  whole  community ;  it  would  have  been  a 
nuisance.  I  do  not  think  '  a  nuisance'  would  be  too  strong  an  expres- 
sion. In  like  manner,  had  we  done  what  it  was  alleged  we  would  do; 
had  we  returned  to  the  Church,  the  expression  of  '  nuisance'  would  have 
been  alike  applicable.  I  do  not  say  that  it  is  equally  applicable  now. 
I  am  not  very  fond  of  substituting  one  name  for  another  ;  I  do  not  like 
to  give  names  unless  there  is  a  call  for  it.  I  do  not  consider  that  it  is 
an  appropriate  designation  now,  that  of  'nuisance.'  A  nuisance  im- 
plies a  certain  power  and  virulence  of  positive  mischief,  which  I  do  not 
think  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland  possesses.  I  think  that  the 
Established  Church  of  Scotland  has  become,  comparatively  speaking, 
effete  and  impotent,  either  as  to  good  or  evil ;  and  I  would  rather  de- 
nominate it  a  nullity  than  a  nuisance.  I  do  so  without  any  desire  to 
stigmatize  the  Church ;  but  I  do  it  under  the  impulse  of  a  deep  con- 
viction, that  if  this  vitiating  flaw  be  suffered  to  adhere  to  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  Scotland,  it  never  will  be  an  efficient  Church  in  our 
country. 

"  Do  you  agree  to  this  definition  of  schism,  that  is  *  an  uncharitable 
distance,  division,  or  alienation  of  affection  among  those  who  are  called 
Christians,  and  agree  in  the  fundamentals  of  religion,  occasioned  by 
their  different  apprehensions  about  little  things  ?' — I  think  that  the 
schism  is  chargeable  upon  those  who  are  in  the  wrong ;  in  the  case  of 
our  Scottish  Church,  a  stable  thing,  a  thing  that  has  been  in  existence 
in  Scotland  since  the  days  of  the  first  Reformation — this  Church  being 
independent  of  the  State  in  spiritual  matters,  I  think  the  guilt  of  the 
schism  was  incurred  by  those  who  deviated  from  that  standard.  I  do 
not  think  that  a  deviation  from  a  State  Church  quasi  a  State  Church 
incurs  the  guilt  of  schism  ;  a  deviation  from  a  Church  of  certain  prin- 
ciples infers  the  guilt  of  schism,  not  a  deviation  from  a  Church  quasi  a 
State  Church. 

"  The  definition  I  have  just  read  to  you  is  Matthew  Henry's  defini- 
tion of  schism.  Upon  reflection,  is  it  sound,  in  your  opinion,  or  un- 
sound ? — I  think  it  is  a  very  fair  definition,  when  it  says,  '  An  unchari- 
table distance,  occasioned  by  their  different  apprehensions  about  little 
things.'  Ours  is  not  a  little  thing ;  and  neither,  I  hope,  are  we  un- 
charitable. 

"  You  would  call  the  question  of  the  supremacy  of  the  ecclesiastical 
courts  in  ecclesiastical  matters  a  fundamental  of  religion,  and  not  a 
little  thing  as  compared  with  the  great  truths  of  Christianity? — I  would 
call  it  not  a  little  thing. 


APPENDIX.  589 


"  Although  the  authorized  version  of  the  Scriptures  is  received  in 
common  by  the  Free  Church  and  the  Established  Church,  although 
the  Catechism  is  common,  although  the  Confession  of  Faith  is  com- 
mon, yet  this  disputed  question  about  the  supremacy  of  ecclesiastical 
courts  in  ecclesiastical  matters  would  be  held  by  you  to  be  funda- 
mental, and  not  a  little  thing  ? — I  hold  it  to  be  a  very  material  thing. 
I  think  that  the  character  of  the  Church  and  its  ministers  is  very  ma- 
terially affected  by  the  difference  between  those  two  systems, 

"  Mr.  F.  Maule. — Is  not  it  a  principle  for  which,  during  the  reign 
of  Charles  the  Second,  18,000  of  our  countrymen,  great  and  small,  gen- 
tle and  simple,  laid  down  their  lives  ? — Yes  :  that  is  understood  to  be 
the  computation  of  the  number  who  laid  down  their  lives  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  very  principle  which,  in  fact,  has  occasioned  the  Dis- 
ruption. 

"  Sir  J.  Graham. — For  what  did  they  lay  down  their  lives? — They 
laid  down  their  lives  for  what  they  called  the  headship  of  Christ,  in 
denial  of  the  doctrine  that  the  king  was  the  head  of  the  Church. 

''  The  following  question  was  put  to  Mr.  Graham  Speirs  : — '  Do  yon 
or  do  you  not  know  that  a  great  number  of  the  Free  Church  hold  the 
opinion,  that  no  communion  or  connection  is  to  be  maintained  between 
the  Free  Church  and  the  Established  Church  ?'  To  which  his  answer 
was  as  follows  : — '  No,  certainly,  I  am  not  aware  of  that ;  on  the  con- 
trary, I  know  that  a  great  number  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland,  and  Dr.  Candlish  among  others,  are  members  of 
what  is  called  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  which  comprehends  members 
of  the  Establishment  as  well  as  others,  who  are  united  for  a  common 
object.'  In  your  opinion,  does  the  being  joint  members  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Alliance  at  all  admit  even  the  Christianity  of  the  Established 
Church  of  Scotland? — I  think  that  the  Christianity  of  the  Established 
Church  is  one  thing,  looking  at  its  system  and  looking  at  its  policy,  and 
that  the  Christianity  of  the  ministers  or  members  of  the  Church  is  al- 
together a  different  thing.  I  would  say  that  the  Church  as  a  Church 
is  very  corrupt  and  very  deficient,  and  if  I  had  not  thought  so  I  might 
have  been  a  member  of  the  Establishment  still :  but  that  does  not  imply 
that  all  its  ministers  or  members  are  unchristian,  any  more  than  it  im- 
plies that  all  Roman  Catholics  are  unchristian.  I  will  not  question 
the  Christianity  of  Pascal  or  the  Christianity  of  Archbishop  Fenelon; 
although,  as  a  system,  I  certainly  dissent  altogether  from  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  And  in  like  manner  I  would  make  a  distinction 
between  the  character  of  the  Scottish  Established  Church  as  a  Church, 
and  the  character  of  its  individual  ministers  and  members. 

"I  need  hardly  ask  you  whether  the  heat  and  anger  of  this  contro- 
versy have  not  given  you  great  pain  ? — I  have  not  seen  much  of  that 
heat  and  anger.  I  must  say  that  the  prevalent  impression  which  my 
converse  with  my  brethren  has  left  upon  me  is,  that  there  has  been  a 


rm  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

marvelous  degree  of  charity  and  forbearance.  I  will  not  justify  hard 
sayings;  those  hard  sayings  were  all  very  natural,  as  far  as  1  under- 
stand, but  not  justifiable.  Charity  has  not  had  its  perfect  work  ;  there 
have  been  violent  sayings,  but  1  am  quite  sure  that  there  is  a  most 
exaggerated  impression  about  this. 

"If  this  matter  in  dispute  were  yielded,  and  sites  were  generally 
granted,  if  this  violence  of  language  were  abated,  and  the  cause  of 
anger  removed  with  regard  to  sites,  would  you  still  have  the  hope  of 
seeing  religious  peace  re-established  in  Scotland  before  you  die  ? — I 
think  that  if  things  were  put  upon  the  footing  I  have  stated,  I  might 
cherish  the  hope  of  religious  peace.  I  do  not  think  it  is  impossible 
by  any  means;  but  I  must  think,  that  looking  at  the  present  state  of 
sentiment  among  various  classes.  Legislators  on  the  one  hand,  and 
Churchmen  on  the  other,  it  is  very  unlikely  that  the  process  which  I 
have  referred  to  will  be  immediately  entered  upon." 


APPENDIX,  L.— P.  506. 

When  the  sudden  and  solemn  event  was  announced  to  it,  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Free  Church  unanimously  resolved  to  adjourn  all  busi- 
ness ;  but  to  remain  convened  till,  as  an  Assembly,  it  had  the  melan- 
choly satisfaction  of  rendering  the  last  office  of  friendship  to  the 
departed.  The  funeral  took  place  on  Friday,  the  4th  June,  and  we 
extract  from  the  Witness  the  following  account  of  it : 

"  The  General  Assembly  of  the  Free  Church  met  in  Free  St.  An- 
drew's Church  at  twelve  o'clock,  together  with  the  members  of 
deputations  to  the  Assembly  from  the  Presbyterian  Churches  of  England 
and  Ireland,  and  also  the  ministers  from  foreign  parts  attending  the 
Assembly;  the  Moderator,  Dr.  Keith,  and  Dr.  Clason,  conducted  the 
devotional  exercises.  The  ministers  and  elders  not  members  of  As- 
sembly, and  deacons,  assembled  in  Free  St.  George's  Church  at  the 
same  hour  ;  the  devotional  exercises  here  were  conducted  by  Dr.  Henry 
Grey  and  Dr.  Buchanan  of  Glasgow.  The  probationers  and  students 
met  in  the  hall  of  the  New  College,  also  at  twelve,  where  Dr.  Cunning- 
ham conducted  the  devotions.  A  little  before  one,  a  large  body  of 
citizens,  desirous  of  testifying  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased, 
by  joining  in  the  procession,  assembled  on  the  south  side  of  Charlotte 
Square  ;  as  did  also  the  Magistrates  and  Town  Council  of  the  city,  in 
St.  George's  Church,  in  the  same  square.  At  one  o'clock,  the  General 
Assembly  left  Free  St.  Andrew's  Church,  the  Moderator  and  Office- 
bearers in  front,  in  gowns  and  bands,  preceded  by  the  two  officers  of 
Assembly,  dressed  in  deep  mourning,  with  hanging  crapes,  and  white 
rods  in  their  hands,  and  walking  four  abreast,  proceeded  to  the  Lothian 
Road,  where  they  halted  at  about  a  hundred  yards  in  advance  of  Free 


APPENDIX.  591 


St.  George's  Church.  The  members  of  Assembly  were  followed  by  the 
Professors  in  the  New  College,  in  their  gowns  and  bands.  The  minis- 
ters and  elders,  not  members  of  Assembly,  now  left  Free  St.  George's 
Church,  walking  four  abreast,  preceded  by  four  beadles,  two  and  two, 
dressed  in  deep  mourning,  and  with  black  rods  in  their  hands,  and  took 
their  place  in  the  procession  immediately  behind  the  Professors.  Next 
came  the  ministers  of  other  denominations.  These  were  followed  by 
the  probationers  and  students,  walking  also  four  abreast,  and  preceded 
by  two  officers,  dressed  in  the  manner  last  described.  Next  in  the 
procession  came  the  Rector  and  Masters  of  the  High  School  in  their 
gowns,  and  preceded  by  the  Janitor  in  his  official  costume  ;  and  follow- 
ing in  their  rear  were  the  Rector,  Teachers,  and  Students  of  the 
Edinburgh  Normal  School,  with  other  Free  Church  teachers  in  Edin- 
burgh and  neighborhood.  Forming  the  rear  of  the  procession  came 
the  large  body  of  citizens,  who  had  assembled  in  Charlotte  Square, 
walking  four  abreast.  Thus  formed,  the  procession  moved  along  the 
Lothian  Road,  headed  by  the  Magistrates  and  Town-Council  in  their 
robes — the  pavement  being  occupied  with  solemnized  spectators,  and 
every  window  being  crowded  with  faces.  At  the  Main  Point,  the 
Committee  and  congregation  of  the  Territorial  Church,  West  Port,  were 
drawn  up,  and,  as  the  procession  passed,  they  fell  into  the  rear.  The 
procession  moved  on  by  the  Links  to  Church  hill ;  and  having  arrived 
within  fifty  yards  of  the  gate  leading  to  the  house  of  the  deceased,  it 
halted.  Here  the  membei's  of  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  and  the 
Professors,  fell  out  of  their  places,  and  repaired  to  the  house,  where  the 
private  friends  of  the  deceased  were  already  assembled,  and  where  devo- 
tional exercises  were  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Addis,  minister  of 
Morningside  Free  Church.  At  Morningside  the  procession  was  joined 
by  the  office-beai-ers  and  congregation  of  Morningside  Free  Church, 
and  by  the  pupils  of  Merchiston  Academy.  After  an  interval  of  about 
half  an  hour,  the  heai'se  containing  the  body  of  the  lamented  dead, 
drawn  by  four  horses,  attended  by  grooms,  was  led  up  to  the  proces- 
sion, which  now  began  to  move  slowly  off  toward  the  place  of  interment 
in  the  New  Cemetery  at  Grange. 

"  Dust  to  dust ;  the  grave  now  holds  all  that  was  mortal  of  Thomas 
Chalmers.  Never  before  did  we  witness  such  a  funeral ;  nay,  never 
before,  in  at  least  the  memory  of  man,  did  Scotland  witness  such  a 
funeral.  Greatness  of  the  mere  extrinsic  type  can  always  command  a 
showy  pageant ;  but  mere  extrinsic  greatness  never  yet  succeeded  in 
purchasing  the  tears  of  a  people ;  and  the  spectacle  of  yesterday — in 
which  the  trappings  of  grief,  worn  not  as  idle  signs,  but  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  a  real  sorrow,  were  borne  by  well-nigh  half  the  population 
of  the  metropolis,  and  blackened  the  public  ways  for  furlong  after  fur- 
long, and  mile  after  mile — was  such  as  Scotland  has  rarely  witnessed, 
and  which  mere  rank  or  wealth,  when  at  the  highest  or  the  fullest, 


592  MEMOIRS  OF  DR.  CHALMERS. 

were  never  yet  able  to  buy.     It  was  a  solemn  tribute,  spontaneously 
paid  to  departed  goodness  and  greatness  by  the  public  mind. 

"  The  day  was  one  of  those  gloomy  days,  not  unfrequent  in  early 
summer,  which  steeps  the  landscape  in  a  sombre  neutral  tint  of  gray 
— a  sort  of  diluted  gloom — and  volumes  of  mist,  unvariegated,  blank, 
and  difflise  of  outline,  flew  low  athwart  the  hills  or  lay  folded  on  the 
distant  horizon.  A  chill  breeze  from  the  east  murmured  drearily 
through  the  trees  that  line  the  cemetery  on  the  south  and  west,  and 
rustled  amid  the  low  ornamental  shrubs  that  vary  and  adorn  its  surface. 
We  felt  as  if  the  garish  sunshine  would  have  associated  ill  with  the 
occasion.  A  continuous  range  of  burial  vaults,  elevated  some  twenty 
feet  over  the  level,  with  a  screen  of  Gothic  architecture  in  front,  fenced 
by  a  parapet,  and  laid  out  into  a  broad  roadway  atop,  runs  along  the 
cemetery  from  side  to  side,  and  was  covered  at  an  early  hour  by  many 
thousand  spectators,  mostly  well-dressed  females.  All  the  neighboring 
roads,  with  the  various  streets  through  which  the  procession  passed, 
from  Morningside  on  to  Lauriston,  and  from  Lauriston  to  the  burying 
ground — a  distance,  by  this  circuitous  route,  of  considerably  more  than 
two  miles — were  lined  thick  with  people.  We  are  confident  we  rather 
under-estimate  than  exaggerate  their  numbers,  when  we  state  that  the 
spectators  of  the  funeral  must  have  rather  exceeded  than  fallen  short 
of  a  hundred  thousand  persons.  As  the  procession  approached,  the 
shops  on  both  sides,  with  scarce  any  exceptions,  were  shut  up,  and 
business  suspended.  There  was  no  part  of  the  street  or  road  through 
which  it  passed  sufficiently  open,  or  nearly  so,  to  give  a  view  of  the 
whole.  The  spectator  merely  saw  file  after  file  pass  by  in  what  seemed 
endless  succession.  In  the  cemetery,  which  is  of  great  extent,  the 
whole  was  at  once  seen  for  the  first  time,  and  the  appearance  was  that 
of  an  army.  The  figures  dwindled  in  the  distance,  in  receding  toward 
the  open  grave  along  the  long  winding  walk,  as  in  those  magnificent 
pictures  of  Martin,  in  which  even  the  littleness  of  men  is  made  to  en- 
hance the  greatness  of  their  works  and  the  array  of  their  aggregated 
numbers.  And  still  the  open  gateway  continued  to  give  ingress  to  the 
dingy,  living  tide,  that  seemed  to  flow  unceasingly  inward,  like  some 
perennial  stream  that  disembogues  its  waters  into  a  lake.  The  party- 
colored  thousands  on  the  eminence  above,  all  in  silence,  and  many  of 
them  in  tears — the  far-stretching  lines  of  the  moui-ners  below — the 
effect,  amid  the  general  black,  of  the  scarlet  cloaks  of  the  magistracy 
— for  the  Magistrates  of  Edinburgh,  with  much  good  taste  and  feeling, 
had  come  in  their  robes  of  office,  and  attended  by  its  officials  and  in- 
signia, to  manifest  their  spontaneous  respect  for  the  memory  of  the 
greatest  of  their  countrymen — the  slow,  measured  ti-amp,  that,  with 
the  rustle  of  the  breeze,  formed  the  only  sounds  audible  in  so  vast  an 
assemblage — all  conspired  to  compose  a  scene  solemn  and  impressive 
in  the  highest  degree,  and  of  which  the  recollection  will  long  survive 


ArPEiNDlX.  593 


in  the  memory  of  the  spectators.  There  was  a  moral  sublimity  in  the 
spectacle.  It  spoke  more  emphatically  than  by  words,  of  the  dignity 
of  intrinsic  excellence,  and  of  the  height  to  which  a  true  man  may  attain. 
It  was  the  dust  of  a  Presbyterian  minister  which  the  coffin  contained ; 
and  yet  they  were  burying  him  amid  the  tears  of  a  nation,  and  with 
more  than  kingly  honors." 


END  OF  VOLUME  FOURTH. 


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